-The Inauguration’s American Dream
(That captionshould read, “I was there- but…) Well greetings friends. Yes I’ll personalize today’s piece by recounting tidbits and trivia of my fascinating twenty-four hour stay in the American capital, Washington D.C., on Tuesday’s Inauguration Day.
No profound analysis as usual, just the significance – and stress – of witnessing change in a powerful place just where it was enacted. (Six months to a year, all will be thinking, “America has a still new President, not a “Black President…”) –Though I’ll attempt a few comments, on the more serious side, a little further down. But now, for the personal actualities I experienced in the streets and the Mall of DC on this historic Tuesday.
I could not connect with our local Capitol News man in time on Tuesday. (He has his own stories) Being me, I opted to forget accreditation and mix and mingle with the thousands and thousands and thousands and…well the two million plus. What a decision! Not even the Lyndon Johnson Inauguration came close in terms of people in Washington D.C. In terms of numbers and adulation, Barack Obama now holds the record – not likely to be broken.
So where should I begin? Okay, simply the “crowd”! Despite a massive demonstration in old Quito, Ecuador or the two Labor Day Carnivals in Brooklyn, New York, I Fenty was never amidst such a mass of human beings before. When trapped on a street for forty minutes, there could not even be a stampede, because it was a crush until police and National Guard released us.
Frustration gave way to fun, when a chant parodying Barack’s rallying cry, broke out (“Can we move from here at all?) Yes we can!” But it was “No we couldn’t”, until security intervention.
THE MOMENT(S)…
Even the temperature of Winter’s thirties couldn’t dampen the spirit, the enthusiasm, the love of the millions – natives, visitors, tourists, invitees, every race group; no real arrests for disorderly conduct. Amazing – The respect and regard demonstrated by all attendees – official or other.
And as I viewed that actual moment of the swearing-in on big screens, I had to control my own cry-baby self as Afro-Americans near me could not control their tears of joy, of historical wrongs overcome and of the hope of the achievement of a young man of colour. As a stranger, I sensed Americans of all races, just thinking “Now we have a President- Close to us, for us!” (Some even “chased away” poor George Bush’s helicopter as it took him away from the White House.) Even the blunder by the US Supreme Chief Justice in administering the Oath could not sully the moment.
I conclude with some more trivia of The Day: New President Obama hustled over to the collapsed Senator Ted Kennedy at the Presidential Luncheon. The Senator, after prayers right there- and hospital- recovered from his seizure; there were thousands of portable potties on Tuesday, but they were not enough. As the millions went to and left the Mall. There was one dissenting anti-Obama voice demonstrating on a main street! What a brave soul (along with his group). It was the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) of the USA protesting Obama’s pledge to send more troops to Afghanistan; the RCP Leader opposes all Presidents because they opposed the American Capitalist System of course. While I feared for his personal safety the RCP Leader exercised his American democratic right of freedom of expression. He was booed and hissed at, but not touched (I suspect, out of the universal respect for Obama’s Day.)
A final personal note for your sense of humour: just hours after you leave then flood-prone, rainy Georgetown, with its own stresses and continual distress, you have no choice but to bundle up against New York’s winter not-so-wonderful. In Georgetown I wear just four pieces of under and outerwear. (I can’t afford caps, socks, or ties!)
So imagine the fun my daughter had in instructing me into thermal underwear, layers of tops, gear for head and face and a type of snow shoes. Robot-like I tried. You cannot survive without them where I am now. Oh for Florida! But earlier this week, Florida had cold fronts too. Oh well…
WHY ONE
HUNDRED DAYS?
New Leaders of Nations are expected to indicate their resolution to stick to campaign promises to give indications of operationalising their declared policies and programmes. Within their first hundred days in office.
I understand this all started when the American media latched onto all the new laws new President Franklin D Roosevelt had a friendly Congress pass within his first three months. Now all the American networks, analysts, critics, supporters – and the world – are scrutinizing Barack Obama’s honeymoon hundred days.
True to form, after Tuesday night’s ten official Inauguration balls, he was at work before nine. By evening, he had signed executive orders on ethics governing, lobbyists revolutionizing that culture in Washington; and on closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp within a year. He had frozen the salaries of his own top staff- even if only symbolic and he pledged complete transparency, accountability and responsibility in an Obama government. The Freedom of Information Act is to be “activated” as never before!
So the watch, American and worldwide, has begun. The, most literary, best contemporary orator of a President supposedly not as “scarred” by black Slavery’s whip of the past, must “clean up” an America “dirtied” by (who else according to the stand-up comedians) “Whites.” If the people, 80 plus percent (!) and the Senate and Congress, sees how vital it is to fall in behind the Recovery Programme, how can he not succeed? Like America and the world, I wait to see. Let my local wise men analyze now…
STAY WARM,
STAY DRY
1) So Vice-President Joe Biden could have been America’s Secretary of State if he wanted the job? (Poor Hilary)
2) One of President Obama’s Personal Assistants? – Reggie Love
2b) Tomorrow I attend the farewell funeral service of Syrup Bascom – a member of the original Yoruba Singers.
3) What? Both John McCain and President Obama are left handed?
4) One of the first surnames the brand new President Obama chose to mention at his podium was—“Fenty”. Ha!
End of my “American column” today
‘Til next week!
