Back from the Inauguration

Personal

Well, my attempts to live-blog from the Inauguration fizzled. The signal strength was usually very good but actually getting bits transmitted reliably from my iPhone was another matter. This hardly mattered, though. Today was wonderful. I realize it sounds corny, but today was a day that made me proud of my country and especially proud of my fellow Americans.

I brought my wife and son with me, partly to spend time with my father and stepmother in Falls Church, and partly to go to the Inauguration. One problem, however, was that I had only two “yellow” tickets for the close-in seated area. My third ticket was “purple,” for the mid-level standing-room area. I decided to give the yellow tickets to my wife and son and use the purple ticket for myself. (Most of the women who heard about this were impressed by my thoughtfulness and generosity. Most of the men realized instantly that I was motivated just as much by fear as by magnanimity. :-) This decision would largely define my experience at the Inauguration.

We left on foot for East Falls Church metro station at 3:30am, with the plan to have breakfast at CMU’s Washington DC office (just half a block from the Capitol Building) at 5am. At the time I thought it was ridiculous to leave so early, but by the time we arrived at the station at 3:45am, there was already a big crowd present. In fact, the first train arrived shortly after 4am absolutely packed, so much so that we could find no way to board. Underestimating the impact of the large crowds would be a recurring theme throughout the day.

After breakfast we headed out to the entrance gates, first to the yellow gate for my wife and son. We arrived at the yellow gate at about 6:30am and found a single-file line that I estimate was about a half-mile long! I dropped off my wife and son and continued on my way, reaching the purple gate at around 6:45am. Again I encountered a long line, but this time about 4-abreast. I started walking to the end of the line. And walking. And walking faster. A bit after 7:15am (I estimate about 2 miles) I finally reached the end of the line, all the way through the I-395 beltway tunnel and beyond. Wow.

The line was, in a word, magnificent. In fact, the word “line” doesn’t do it justice. Maybe “phalanx of Obama devotees” comes closer. For the first couple of hours the line got longer and longer as more and more people, all with purple tickets, came to join. (I am guessing that perhaps half of the 240,000 tickets given out must have been purple.) Then the line started to bunch up and get wider, to the point that it completely filled the tunnel.

At 8:40am, I was perhaps one third of the way through the tunnel while my wife and son were already seated. At 10am, when the Inaugural ceremony began, I was just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Somehow I thought it fitting to spend the last moments of the Bush presidency underground; after all, it seemed almost poetic to be emerging from darkness into light… It wasn’t until around 11:45am that I would finally get near the gate.

Now, it might be natural to assume that there was a lot of frustration and unhappiness. Indeed, those of us in the tunnel missed most or all of the ceremony. But as strange as it may seem, the mood in the tunnel was, well, merry. Exuberant. High-spirited. The “wave” went up and down the tunnel. Chants of “We can do it!” and “Purple are people too!” and even “Go Steelers!” (followed by lots of boos from the locals) rung out. (A man next to me, from Utah, bet some of us $20 that he could get the crowd to do a Sarah Palin chant. No one took him up on the bet.) People were civilized. Sure we were worried and frustrated about missing everything. But there were no fights, no cutting in line, and no loss of smiles and laughs. The crowd, which had people from all over the world and all ages, races, and ethnic origins, was simply determined to “keep the joy” in the dawn of a new era for the nation. I simply can’t remember being in a crowd like this. To me, it felt like a new America.

At noon — after almost five hours in line — I finally reached the gate. Like all the others, I dashed through the metal detectors and onto the Capitol lawn just as the quartet led by Yo Yo Ma was finishing — and just in time for the swearing-in of Barack Obama as our 44th President. (I fear that the many thousands of people behind me were shut out.) As the guns were fired in salute, people around me cheered. Strangers hugged me. Many, especially black Americans, wept openly. For many of them, the weight of persecution seemed visibly lifted off their backs, at least for this one moment in history.

Obama’s speech was familiar but inspirational to those around me. Having been working so closely recently with Ed Lazowska, Peter Harsha, and others on science policy issues, I was particularly heartened by his statement:

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

The crowds were colossal and the conditions were difficult. Despite it all, everyone I encountered was smiling, leaving me with the overwhelming sense that with new leadership, people are already starting to act in a more public-spirited way. Indeed, the sincerity of the celebration and the camaraderie was something that I had never before experienced, let alone on such a large scale. While some cynics might dismiss this as simply the result of a congregation of True Believers, I think there is something real going on here, a fundamental shift in our society. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it, and especially for my wife and son to do so as well.

In closing, I would like to give special thanks to Deborah Tekavec, Carnegie Mellon’s Director of Federal Relations. Not only did she make the trip possible, but she was a fantastic host to my family, providing both breakfast and lunch just yards from the Capitol. I’ll always be grateful for her help and hospitality, and look forward to completing some big projects for CMU and our department in the near future.

Peter Lee @ January 21, 2009