Inauguration

Well, we (Barbara and I) did it. We attended the inauguration ceremonies of our 44th President, the first of color....Barack Hussein Obama. Live, in person......
We Metro'd to the L'Enfant Plaza stop, with surprisingly little delay at about 6AM.
We actually led a student tour group, with whom we stayed overnight at their motel.
So, a 4AM wake-up call and a meager breakfast had us on our way to the Branch Avenue Metro stop (Leading the group) by 5AM. Yes....I started that early. Not something I usually do. But, the event necessitated extreme action.

We stood outside (Of course) for about 5 hours in freezing temperatures (High 20's) to witness this historic event. No food, no water and no bathroom break. Yes, there were many porta poddies, but not in our area. And besides, we would have had to give up our spot to get to them. No way.......

Barbara got official tickets to the "Silver" area, just inside (east of) 3rd street on the Mall. We could see the speakers' stand, but were too far away to actually see the speakers. So, we watched it on the jumbotrons. Like all the people outside the official area and along the Mall. An estimated 2 million of them.
But....we have our official tickets (secured from a contact of Barbara's in Speaker Pelosi's office) as souvenirs.
In fact, when we got to the entry gate, all they did was a hand body tap down and a cursory search of our bags. In fact, they never asked to see our official tickets.

So, after all that, what did I think?
Well, it was not as much of a circus as I expected. No colorful hats or clothes. No banners were allowed in our area. So, I cannot speak for the rest of the Mall. But, I think banners were banned there as well. Maybe it was the season, but things were definitely drab. My red coat was a rare display of color. No creative buttons. At $10 - $20 a pop, the vendors could have done better. They were so much more creative and colorful at the Denver convention. My $5 hat, purchased in my neighborhood across from the Zoo, was among the more colorful.
Everybody was well behaved. Cheered for the good guys and booed the bad. I will let you guess who was who.
But, unlike the acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver, the scene at this inaugural was definitely not electric. Polite cheers but no jumping up and down like at Invesco. This was an historic even, but not a "Peak Life Experience" like the acceptance speech. Or even his Convention speech four years earlier. I guess another emotional speech was too much to hope for. It will be interesting to see if any of his phrases become historic. I did not hear any.
Of course, what made it historic was the color of the man and the tenor of our times, not necessarily his words.

But, now that history has been made, we will soon have to see effective action. Effective....action. I surely do not know what that is.
But, at this juncture, I am confident the Barak Obama will find the right action.
I think he has the proper, maybe even unique, combination of charisma to instill hope, and intellect to make that hope be fulfilled. It will take both to carry us through what lies ahead of all of us. Charisma is necessary for people to believe things will/are getting better. And intellect to insure he will make the kind of decisions to make that charismatic inspired belief actually come true. I believe in self fulfilling prophesy. If we think these are improving, they will. But, only for a while. In the end the decisions will have to be successful on their own.
You can do it Barack. I am behind you.