Just as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was about to administer the oath of office to Obama, security guards pulled shut the tall metal gates at Louisiana Avenue and C Street NW. [This was the official entry point we were told to go to, where thousands of people had been standing since 6:30 a.m. or earlier.] Thousands of frustrated people milled outside. Some thrust their purple tickets through the bars in frustration, chanting, “Let us in! Let us in!” or “Pur-ple, pur-ple!”

Others just stood sadly. As cannons fired to announce the new president, a middle-aged African American man stood outside the closing gates and began to weep silently. Nearby, an African American woman in a wheelchair drew a blanket tighter around her shoulders and closed her eyes. The moment of a lifetime had passed.

Back to me again. I recall two beautifully dressed black women of a certain age (you’re right about the furs Jill!) who were standing with us around 7:00 in the purple line (if you can call it that). I noticed they had blue tickets. Our friends with blue tickets had gone very early under the 3d street tunnel to get to the other side of the mall where the blue section was. I suggested that they head over that way or ask someone which way to go. They departed. They were back about 20 min. later, saying a policeman had told them to go up 1st street then turn right. This was characteristic of the police all day, giving wrong information. Well, the crowd in the “line” was shoulder to shoulder going nowhere, including them. My friends (including my friend’s in-laws who came from Colorado for the event) who went where they were supposed to go very early in the morning never got into the blue section and missed the whole thing. What are the odds these ladies made it? Where did they travel from to miss the event of a lifetime they would have been better off to have watched from their living rooms?

I am seething with anger at my city and the ridiculous lack of planning and craziness they let happen at an event that we KNEW was going to be heavily attended. We’re talking about the TICKETED section where they ALWAYS have this many people! How could they have screwed it up so that thousands did not get in? Including Marian Wright Edelman by the way. Why didn’t they sign up a few thousand more of all those folks who wanted to volunteer. A half a dozen people with signs telling people where to go and 10 more screening machines would have solved the problem at the purple gate. Oh did I mention I set off the metal detector (probably my handwarmers) and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING TO ME?!?!?!

I’m so thrilled Obama is President and was so glad to get my ticket. I was so excited to be there and feel so lucky I got to be so close. But even while I was watching it I was thinking of my fellow “purples” behind the gate, getting shafted. I’m so glad so many had a great time. But it could have been so much better with just a little better planning.

Angela

“THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

Yesterday around 12:30 pm eastern I was jolted by the forgotten sensation of feeling like a proud American.

It was a good feeling, although nothing of the bumper-stickered, nationalistic “Proud to be an American” sort, since my identity was provided at birth and therefore I really had very little to do with it. Rather, it was a pride in what I sensed is my country's reemerging goodness, or at least what I desperately hope is a roughly approximated virtuous return.

And having contributed to that national potential through my vote, I also felt proud of having cast it, the millions of others who had joined me and, after President Obama spoke, the resulting product so far.

His inaugural address may not rank among the few greats, yet it did deliver, I thought, precisely what it needed to deliver: a signaling of national metamorphosis, principally through first acknowledging our common blunders, then accepting common challenges and pursuing common objectives.

That — the proven perils of commonality lost, the hope of commonality found — was the unmistakable theme which ran throughout.

“Our economy,” for instance, “is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

Later, “we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

And yet again: “There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.”

I was struck by the rewarding degree to which the president openly denounced our most recent past, especially since its perpetrator was sitting but a few feet away. But in doing so he again embraced and reinforced the theme of common purpose:

“The nation cannot prosper long” — nor “long endure,” I imagine he was tempted to write — “when it favors only the prosperous.” Remedially, only by “extend[ing] opportunity to every willing heart” can we find “the surest route to our common good.”

In foreign policy, too, the theme of commonality persisted: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.”

But of course no Obamian statement of principles would be complete without a forceful reminder of the post-ideological world he envisions: that we must overcome the “worn-out dogmas” of the right and left, and, like a nation of 300 million industriously thoughtful William Jameses, ponder and pursue only what may work.

“The question we ask today,” he affirmed in a characteristically sensible offering of pure pragmatism, “is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

Jamesian, Rooseveltian — Obamian. It's about time.

Finally, the president reached into earlier eras in which an authentic understanding of American “values” prevailed — not as a cheap political slogan, but as an achievable ideal of national character:

“Our challenges may be new … but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true…. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility…. This is the price … of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence [which can] shape an uncertain destiny.”

Destiny is an odd little concept as a subject for debate, since by definition it connotes an absolute and immutable — hence uselessly ponderable — certainty. But perhaps it can, after all, be tweaked. It certainly can for the poet, anyway, and grand poetic visions are what inaugural addresses should convey. And that, Barack Obama did admirably.

But from merely a narrow, personal point of view? He made me feel proud again.

Please respond to P.M.'s commentary by leaving comments below and sharing them with the BuzzFlash community. For personal questions or comments you can contact him at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

The ball had two spaces: the concert room + outer hall area.
The capacity of the concert room was 3500
The capacity of the outer hall was 3000

The number of tickets sold (at $75 each) was 10,000.

Somebody screwed up big time. I'm obviously happy overall with who our new president is, but with my hands and feet still in pain from exposure, my excitement has been tempered.

http://singularvoice.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/e…

How do I join! …Or has the movement already died?

JJP rocks! Yaaaaa! :>)

Thank you for ALL your efforts! :>)

We're hearing there are no arrest so far from the Inaugural event. That's sweet music to the ear.

Stay safe, warm and joyful!!!!