Witness History
Lincoln Memorial concert: We got there a little late because it's hard to bus around 5,000 college students, especially in zones with crowds of people and the police trying to direct you everywhere, so we didn't get to see the very beginning with Denzel Washington, but did see everything else. I took a bunch of pictures while there---so many celebrities, not to mention so many frickin' people! The ladies standing in front of us were pretty hilarious though, my roommate and I kept on cracking jokes about random things like "OH MY GOD IF ANGELINA IS UP THERE...." "Naw, Angelina was a McCain fan, she won't be there" "...How do you know that?!" We were pretty far back in the concert, though. Colin Powell spoke to us at the University of Maryland earlier that day which is why, instead of going early to secure a spot at the concert, we woke up at 4:30AM to get breakfast at 5 to hear Colin Powell at 8AM at the University of Maryland. We heard Al Gore speak at the same stadium the day after the concert, and I must say, that even though it was more crowded at Al Gore's speech, I was more impressed with Colin Powell's because he talked about the importance of this inauguration in history as well as his story about going into the military. Back in the day, there used to be this one hotel (between 2 cities, I forgot which he said) that every black person knew about called the Ghana Hotel, and if you didn't get there, you had to keep on driving or stay with family because no one else would take you. The basic outline of Al Gore's speech: there are 3 problems--wars, economy and climate change--and it is up to YOU to help bring change. He is a great speaker, had some good stories, but I like Colin Powell more.
Inauguration and parade: Firstly, I'm going to mention that this entire trip/conference was poorly organized-- there was even a petition going around complaining about it. Of course since it's college students, we could petition about anything, but whatever. There were too many people, too few buses, and no communication at all between the director and buses and the FAs (faculty advisors-- they basically were stationed around if you needed to ask a question). I mean, yeah, 5000 college students is a lot of people to handle, but if you ask everyone to be somewhere at a certain time, it shouldn't be so terrible, assuming you pay attention to the police who try to direct traffic (which was also apparently too difficult to do).
So anyway, all of the university students who were there at the conference did not receive tickets to the inauguration (despite thinking they/we all did), so at least half of us left our respective hotels at around 2 or 3AM to walk the 3 or so miles to the National Mall, hoping to get a good view of the inauguration. Nobody told us where to go/how to get there, just to wake up early and go if we wanted to because it was going to be crowded. They did rent out a few places to watch the inauguration on tv, but really, travel all the way to DC to watch it on tv? No fucking way. My roommate and I got to a checkpoint where they were stopping people around 4AM and I'd say there were less than 100 people in front of us--- they said they'd let us past at 7, so we waited for 3 hours outside a Starbucks (which was a TERRIBLE place to have a checkpoint). It was actually kind of fun at first-- I liked the idea of staking out territory and camping out to ensure a good view. The crowd was pretty cool at first, there was a group of other college students (not from the conference) right in front of us, and they were singing and dancing around to try to keep warm. Oh yeah, it was fucking cold. Like, REALLY fucking cold. It got to be just before 7 and the police finally let us break through, only to make us stop again, this time at closed gates. We were kinda close to the front, mostly from running the 2 blocks to the next gate, but what we didn't know was the line we were in was to get to the parade and not the inauguration, which NOBODY told us. Nor did they tell us that the line we were in was for non-ticketed people. The people from the conference said that once we got to high security places our ticket into these places would be the lanyard they gave us with our names and a big picture of the capital and something line "presidential inauguration conference"--- no one we showed it to recognized it though, so it is a good thing we stayed in the non-ticketed line.
Anyway, the gate opened around 8:15 or so, but only lets in a few people at a time to go through the metal detector security. Efficient for security purposes, but so slow for 1000+ people standing in line. We were near the intersection 7th and D, and before 9:30, there were already people backed up past F street (where a metro is). 2 people in the crowd we were in fainted. This time we were next to a different group of college students (who were in the same conference as us) who decided they wanted to sing as well. Everyone seemed to pick the same songs to want to sing, my roommate and I joined in on a few. Lean On Me, American Pie, Piano Man, etc. They tried singing Brass Monkey, which lasted only a few seconds and then they remembered that that entire song can be summed up in "brass monkey that funky monkey," then they stopped. I'll write a list of all the songs I remember from the trip later.
Basically, security and standing in line with a massive crowd sucked, especially since we thought we had tickets to the inauguration. We got to the parade, I was extremely tired, and my boots (yes, I was wearing leather boots with heels because it was fucking cold and I didn't bring my snow boots---I literally could not feel my toes. I put hand-warmers in my boot and didn't even notice a difference) were killing me, so we get hot dogs (the only thing we ate until much much later) and sit down for a bit. We technically had about 2 hours before Obama would take his oath, even though we didn't sit that long-- most of that time was spent walking around looking for a good vantage point to see the parade (by this point we had given up on getting closer to the inauguration, even if we could get a decent spot, we would still have to hear him over the intercom). As soon as Obama began speaking, everyone shut up. It was amazing-- being there when he spoke. I really was getting teary just knowing how impactful and historical this event was and knowing that I was just down the street, but, you know me, I will not cry in public, so I stopped myself.
We move around again, looking for a better place to watch parade and we get to MSNBC set-up with Ann Curry, who is extremely sweet in person. We were right in front (pretty sure my roommate and I are in the background of some of that footage) and had a pretty good view of the parade, except for the fact that there were policemen lined up so getting a good picture was impossible, though I took them anyway. The parade was late because Ted Kennedy had a seizure, which we only knew because Ann Curry told us. A lady next to me asked if I could take a picture with her and Ann Curry several times until we actually got her attention. She was really sweet and very appreciative-- the crowd isn't always as nice when it comes to celebrities. She took a picture of me and her, as well, which I thought was pretty funny.
As soon as Obama got closer, the crowd got louder. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a good picture of him in that crowd. I had a front row place, but was pushed out of the way by some other lady who stood on the railing that was keeping us from getting too close to the MSNBC stage/equipment. My roommate, the girls behind me and I were all extremely pissed off at her since she was technically in the front row, and standing on something that made her taller than everyone else. I tried taking a video of Obama's walk because I knew I couldn't get a picture--too risky to try, but even that failed with the lady next to me still shoving me out of the way and accidentally elbowing my camera. It was just bad. I got no pictures of Obama at all. I did get a few of Biden, though, which was slightly consoling, but the fact that we had waiting 14 hours to see Obama and then still didn't get a good picture/video pissed me off. I mean, I didn't really expect to get a "good" picture, but a video with a glimpse of him would have been nice.
Gala: The majority of people left as soon as Obama passed by them in the parade---we took the metro back to the hotel. I made it to the elevator in my boots then took them off as soon as I had enough room, where I took a shower and got ready for the gala. There were a bunch of galas and/or balls, but no, Obama did not go to ours. The conference I was with rented out the Air&Space Museum for our gala (which was actually extremely badass) where we got food. My roommate and I had a bunch of leftover Peach Bacardi (the night before, she got some 39 year old to buy her/us some peach bacardi because we said we were here on a conference and left our ids in our hotel room but the liquor store closed in 20 minutes so we didn't have time to get get ids, etc), so I had several shots worth and was slightly drunk for the first part of the party, but no one noticed. Not even my roommate who, was also slightly drunk, but we basically didn't leave each other's side the entire time we were there. I sobered up quicker than expected. They had a live band (Burnt Sienna) that played covers to hit songs-- even some 90's music too like Eve 6 and Lit. Aside from eating, I basically danced and talked the whole night. The buses were late picking us up, but that was expected. Hooray for unorganization, which I don't think is a word, whatever.
Overall, I think it was worth it to go. Maybe not worth it to do the whole program though I am glad I heard the speeches by Al Gore and Colin Powell. And then there were 4 seminars sometime throughout this entire trip-- I went to 3 and fell asleep at 2. The one I didn't fall asleep through was with someone who worked with Britney Spears in the music industry.
Regardless, it was a great experience, and despite the fact that everything was unorganized, I'm glad I went. As cliche and lame as it sounds, I witnessed history.
Sorry this is hella long, I have been told I have memory issues and therefore am trying to be particular for my sake. It's entries like this that I have to remind myself why I write in this journal---for myself.
EDIT: Was sent this picture from LUChA mailing list a while back and decided to put it on here for reference: http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
Inauguration and parade: Firstly, I'm going to mention that this entire trip/conference was poorly organized-- there was even a petition going around complaining about it. Of course since it's college students, we could petition about anything, but whatever. There were too many people, too few buses, and no communication at all between the director and buses and the FAs (faculty advisors-- they basically were stationed around if you needed to ask a question). I mean, yeah, 5000 college students is a lot of people to handle, but if you ask everyone to be somewhere at a certain time, it shouldn't be so terrible, assuming you pay attention to the police who try to direct traffic (which was also apparently too difficult to do).
So anyway, all of the university students who were there at the conference did not receive tickets to the inauguration (despite thinking they/we all did), so at least half of us left our respective hotels at around 2 or 3AM to walk the 3 or so miles to the National Mall, hoping to get a good view of the inauguration. Nobody told us where to go/how to get there, just to wake up early and go if we wanted to because it was going to be crowded. They did rent out a few places to watch the inauguration on tv, but really, travel all the way to DC to watch it on tv? No fucking way. My roommate and I got to a checkpoint where they were stopping people around 4AM and I'd say there were less than 100 people in front of us--- they said they'd let us past at 7, so we waited for 3 hours outside a Starbucks (which was a TERRIBLE place to have a checkpoint). It was actually kind of fun at first-- I liked the idea of staking out territory and camping out to ensure a good view. The crowd was pretty cool at first, there was a group of other college students (not from the conference) right in front of us, and they were singing and dancing around to try to keep warm. Oh yeah, it was fucking cold. Like, REALLY fucking cold. It got to be just before 7 and the police finally let us break through, only to make us stop again, this time at closed gates. We were kinda close to the front, mostly from running the 2 blocks to the next gate, but what we didn't know was the line we were in was to get to the parade and not the inauguration, which NOBODY told us. Nor did they tell us that the line we were in was for non-ticketed people. The people from the conference said that once we got to high security places our ticket into these places would be the lanyard they gave us with our names and a big picture of the capital and something line "presidential inauguration conference"--- no one we showed it to recognized it though, so it is a good thing we stayed in the non-ticketed line.
Anyway, the gate opened around 8:15 or so, but only lets in a few people at a time to go through the metal detector security. Efficient for security purposes, but so slow for 1000+ people standing in line. We were near the intersection 7th and D, and before 9:30, there were already people backed up past F street (where a metro is). 2 people in the crowd we were in fainted. This time we were next to a different group of college students (who were in the same conference as us) who decided they wanted to sing as well. Everyone seemed to pick the same songs to want to sing, my roommate and I joined in on a few. Lean On Me, American Pie, Piano Man, etc. They tried singing Brass Monkey, which lasted only a few seconds and then they remembered that that entire song can be summed up in "brass monkey that funky monkey," then they stopped. I'll write a list of all the songs I remember from the trip later.
Basically, security and standing in line with a massive crowd sucked, especially since we thought we had tickets to the inauguration. We got to the parade, I was extremely tired, and my boots (yes, I was wearing leather boots with heels because it was fucking cold and I didn't bring my snow boots---I literally could not feel my toes. I put hand-warmers in my boot and didn't even notice a difference) were killing me, so we get hot dogs (the only thing we ate until much much later) and sit down for a bit. We technically had about 2 hours before Obama would take his oath, even though we didn't sit that long-- most of that time was spent walking around looking for a good vantage point to see the parade (by this point we had given up on getting closer to the inauguration, even if we could get a decent spot, we would still have to hear him over the intercom). As soon as Obama began speaking, everyone shut up. It was amazing-- being there when he spoke. I really was getting teary just knowing how impactful and historical this event was and knowing that I was just down the street, but, you know me, I will not cry in public, so I stopped myself.
We move around again, looking for a better place to watch parade and we get to MSNBC set-up with Ann Curry, who is extremely sweet in person. We were right in front (pretty sure my roommate and I are in the background of some of that footage) and had a pretty good view of the parade, except for the fact that there were policemen lined up so getting a good picture was impossible, though I took them anyway. The parade was late because Ted Kennedy had a seizure, which we only knew because Ann Curry told us. A lady next to me asked if I could take a picture with her and Ann Curry several times until we actually got her attention. She was really sweet and very appreciative-- the crowd isn't always as nice when it comes to celebrities. She took a picture of me and her, as well, which I thought was pretty funny.
As soon as Obama got closer, the crowd got louder. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a good picture of him in that crowd. I had a front row place, but was pushed out of the way by some other lady who stood on the railing that was keeping us from getting too close to the MSNBC stage/equipment. My roommate, the girls behind me and I were all extremely pissed off at her since she was technically in the front row, and standing on something that made her taller than everyone else. I tried taking a video of Obama's walk because I knew I couldn't get a picture--too risky to try, but even that failed with the lady next to me still shoving me out of the way and accidentally elbowing my camera. It was just bad. I got no pictures of Obama at all. I did get a few of Biden, though, which was slightly consoling, but the fact that we had waiting 14 hours to see Obama and then still didn't get a good picture/video pissed me off. I mean, I didn't really expect to get a "good" picture, but a video with a glimpse of him would have been nice.
Gala: The majority of people left as soon as Obama passed by them in the parade---we took the metro back to the hotel. I made it to the elevator in my boots then took them off as soon as I had enough room, where I took a shower and got ready for the gala. There were a bunch of galas and/or balls, but no, Obama did not go to ours. The conference I was with rented out the Air&Space Museum for our gala (which was actually extremely badass) where we got food. My roommate and I had a bunch of leftover Peach Bacardi (the night before, she got some 39 year old to buy her/us some peach bacardi because we said we were here on a conference and left our ids in our hotel room but the liquor store closed in 20 minutes so we didn't have time to get get ids, etc), so I had several shots worth and was slightly drunk for the first part of the party, but no one noticed. Not even my roommate who, was also slightly drunk, but we basically didn't leave each other's side the entire time we were there. I sobered up quicker than expected. They had a live band (Burnt Sienna) that played covers to hit songs-- even some 90's music too like Eve 6 and Lit. Aside from eating, I basically danced and talked the whole night. The buses were late picking us up, but that was expected. Hooray for unorganization, which I don't think is a word, whatever.
Overall, I think it was worth it to go. Maybe not worth it to do the whole program though I am glad I heard the speeches by Al Gore and Colin Powell. And then there were 4 seminars sometime throughout this entire trip-- I went to 3 and fell asleep at 2. The one I didn't fall asleep through was with someone who worked with Britney Spears in the music industry.
Regardless, it was a great experience, and despite the fact that everything was unorganized, I'm glad I went. As cliche and lame as it sounds, I witnessed history.
Sorry this is hella long, I have been told I have memory issues and therefore am trying to be particular for my sake. It's entries like this that I have to remind myself why I write in this journal---for myself.
EDIT: Was sent this picture from LUChA mailing list a while back and decided to put it on here for reference: http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c