We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist...

I have so much to say and I know it is going to take me forever to write it all down. I don't even really know where to start...

Last week I had the privilege of witnessing the inauguration of our brand new president, Barack Obama. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the best experiences I've had in all of my twenty-two years. First of all, I had no intention of going to the inauguration until the Friday before. That's when my friend Kyle, who lives in Maryland right outside of DC, offered to give me a ride down there and back and a place to stay during the inauguration if I wanted it. At first I didn't think it was the greatest plan; however, after thinking about it I decided that if I passed up the opportunity to witness an occasion this momentous, I would always regret it.

We arrived in Maryland on Monday afternoon and basically hung around the apartment for most of the day. Later that evening I went with Kyle, his roommate Jenn, and some of their friends to check stuff out downtown. It was kind of awesome to see stuff all set up for the inauguration without any people around. Here is a picture of D.C. before chaos ensued:

On Tuesday morning, because they are THAT awesome, Kyle and Jenn got up extra early and took Danny (another one of Kyle's friends that was staying with him for the inauguration) and myself to the metro station at around 6 a.m. I thought that six would be a good time to get started and avoid crowds because the actual inauguration didn't start until noon. I was wrong. Apparently everyone else in town for the event had the same idea. By the time we got to the station there were already HUGE lines. Luckily, while we were out the night before I got my pass so at least that was one line we didn't have to stand in.


I can't even begin to tell you how insane just the train ride was. First of all, we got on the train a little after six, but we didn't get out of the station at our "destination" (I'll explain the reason for the quotation marks later) until maybe around eight-thirty. Anyway, once we got past the lines for the pass-cards the lines weren't nearly as bad as we had originally thought. However, when we had to switch train lines closer to downtown things got much more hectic than I had expected. We stood on the platform and had like three trains in a row pass by us because the cars were so full. They had police standing at the platforms trying to keep some semblance of order, and by police I don't mean just transit security I mean like real police imported from New York. It was crazy trying to get on the train at this point. People were getting antsy and there was some pushing from people trying to get closer to the front of the platform. Since we were standing at almost the front of the line we received a decent amount of pushing while standing there. It was the only really scary moment all day but I was a little worried that we were going to get pushed down on the tracks. A little later in the day somebody actually did get pushed on the tracks and only missed being hit by a train by squeezing in the crawl space on the tracks... definitely not a fun time I'm sure.

Once we were on our second train things got a little frustrating. You see, the sheer amount of people trying to use the metro was mind-boggling. The issue was that almost all traffic into the city was shut off at sometime in the very early morning. So, unless you were a VIP (like A-list celebrity or politician), you either had to hoof it or use the metro system. Back to my point... with the amount of people getting off the metro downtown, they had to start shutting down stations because they couldn't physically fit anymore people into the stations. You would be on the train and they would announce that so and so station was now open or closed and you needed to alter your plans accordingly. This caused a problem because we thought the station would need was open and then once we were on the train we found out our station had just been closed and we were finally let out like three stations later.

When we finally got off the train we encountered this:

I have never been in a crowd of people like this in my life. One of the things that stuck out to me most about the getting the getting-the-heck-out-of-the-station experience was that no one was rude. You would think with a crowd of this many people all trying to get to one place at the same time, there would be a lot of tension and frustration but there really wasn't. It was like all the "hope and love crap" that I scoffed at Obama for pushing during the election was real. I know it sounds cheesy but it's true. We even had like a little cheer/chant while we were trying to get out. Some lady working for the transit system was on the loud speaker and when she wanted us to move she would say "keep it movin'" in like a sing-songy voice and people answer by saying "Obama" in the same rhythm. And everybody just kind of laughed at the craziness of the situation. And when she wanted us to stop she would say "red light, red light, STOP" and everyone would answer by saying "alright", again this was all done in the same sing-songy voice. It was awesome, like everyone understood that what was going to happen for us as a nation at noon was much more important than our individual desires to hurry up and find a good place to witness it.

When we got outside we found that we were at the back of the Capitol Building. At first I was like "awesome, we're so close"... then I realized that we weren't politicians or celebrities and we were going to have to get to the other end of the Mall to find someplace to stand (and I should clarify that by saying that I realized this fact, what I really meant is that I hadn't a clue and Danny was the one that actually had an idea of where we were going). **On a side note, I ripped my favorite jeans on a stupid parking garage gate while trying to get through all of the people.** We basically had to run like two miles and stand in another sea of people trying to get on to the Mall. We were stuck in this crowd of people for a while. Eventually we were able to get unstuck from here because the policemen just started to let people climb over the barricades so that there was a greater flow of traffic. Once we got out of the section in the picture, the crowd wasn't bad at all on the Mall. We were able to position ourselves in front of a jumbo-tron by elevenish.

While people were waiting for the inaugural events to start, they replayed Sunday afternoon's concert and Obama's speech on the jumbo-tron. I was ridiculously emotional already and I hadn't gotten a chance to see Sunday's speech, so my crying began before any of Tuesday's events actually started. There was also this part in the concert where Bruce Springsteen played "This Land". It should have really been a beautiful moment. Everyone around me was waving flags and singing along. I on the other hand laughed through the whole thing. The reason for this is that all I could think of was the Jib-Jab video from 2004 to that song. Particularly the part with the Native American man that sang "This land was my land" and then all the corporate commercialized crap that makes up our nation pops up and sings, "but now it's OUR land". I can never hear that song the same ever again.

As I said before, I was ridiculously emotional throughout the whole day. I think that fact that I have spent the past four years studying history and political science may have played a part in things. I definitely understand the historical significance of what happened last week. One of my favorite topics in history to study has always been the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.

I define a hero to be somebody who sees something that is wrong and they then dedicate their life to trying to right whatever the wrong is. It is somebody who sees something bigger than their self and they decide to do something about it, even if they may not get to benefit from the eventual success. People like Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and William Wilberforce. These people all fought injustice, not because they wanted to personally benefit from the end result but because they felt a calling to join in the battle against injustice.

The fact that we had just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day stayed in the back of my head the whole day. The idea that forty-five years ago people stood in our nation's capital in approximately the same spot as I was standing and listened to Dr. King tell them about his dream, a dream of a world where someday people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. It felt as if in essentially the same spot that he shared his dream with a group of people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, his dream was now becoming a reality. I have always wished I was alive in the sixties so that I could have experienced some of the huge events that took place in that decade. On January 20, 2009 I got the next best thing. I was at least able to see the fruit of their efforts for all of those years. As corny as this is going to sound I'm going to say it anyway, I really hope that Dr. King, and the rest of the civil rights leaders that weren't able to see the day come, were looking down from Heaven and had the satisfaction of knowing that their lives truly meant something. One of my favorite speeches that he made was his "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech, in this speech he said: "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!". Those words have always stuck with me. His faith never wavered. He died the next because of an assassin's bullet but I feel like he knew before his death that this day was coming. I really felt like Obama's inauguration belonged as much to the people blazed a trail before him as it did to him.

I was as excited about what Obama said in his speech as I was for the historical implications of his swearing-in. I thought his speech was outstanding. I know that there was a lot of hype and expectations when it came to his speech. The pundits skewered the speech Tuesday night. They said he didn't say anything that was catchy enough to make it stand out for posterity but I have to think that they weren't watching the same speech as me.

I definitely worried that with all of President Obama's rhetoric about hope, love and unity that he wasn't going to take a strong stand on anything while in office for fear of ruining those feelings. I was pleasantly surprised. He was assertive and direct is his stances and intentions without causing people to feel like he was being adversarial towards his opposition. I also disagree with the pundits that there was no part of his speech that was extremely memorable and moving. My favorite part of the speech was this line: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist". I love that he is taking a strong and proactive stance on human rights. It is really refreshing after eight years of the Bush Administration's horrible and somewhat hypocritical stances on human rights.

After the inauguration ended two million people all tried to leave the Mall at one time. That was lots of fun. The best analogy to describe what this was like is sheep. You know how sheep are really stupid and they just go where they are told without ever knowing why? Well that is what it was like trying to leave the inauguration. There are so many people and you are so squished you can't even see your feet sometimes but you just keep following the crowd because that's the only thing you can really do. I could probably tell you like twenty more stories about just this. I'm kind of sick of writing so I'm not going to lol.

All in all it was an incredible experience and I'm really glad I went.

This video is of the singer Patty Griffin singing the song "Up to the Mountain" which she was inspired to write by MLK Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. I love this song, it's one of those songs that if you are sitting by yourself someplace calm and quiet when you listen to it, it will definitely give you chills. It's breathtakingly beautiful.