Beautifully breathtaking, the sea of diverse faces converged upon the National Mall for Barack Obama's Inauguration ceremony. I arrived to the Capitol building area around 6am...and the lines were wrapped around blocks away. The police didn't appear to be organized in the least. Disseminating conflicting information, misdirecting ticket holders, abandoning crowd control...shit right out of the George Bush playbook. Overwhelmed, unprepared, time wasted...you get the point. At one point the street was full of people, packed like sardines when the police decide they need to move four vehicles through the street. "We have to get to our post" one stated. The crowd was like "m-fer puh-leeze. Ya'll should have been at your post hours ago."
As we finally made our way to the actual street where the line to the Purple Gate began, the chaos only thickened as police did not attend to the growing, anxious crowd. As I neared the gate I saw Mariah Carey (dressed tastefully, and not overly made up) along with her ultra corny cool husband, the cute Nick Cannon. Yes, they were also in the Purple section. I also saw Rev. Jesse Jackson who passed through the street mob scene.
Once inside the pearly gates, I finally made my way down front. I was amazed by the sheer number of people. When I attended the Million Man March in 1995 I was overwhelmed by the number of men on hand. This Inauguration trumped that many times over!
Like many, I thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony. I was thrilled that Aretha was covered and clothed, though that Aunt Jemima (pre-makeover) Court Jester monstrosity atop her scalp screamed HOT MESS! I couldn't help but laugh when a young man standing behind me stated, "Dude, she's way past her time." This as her vibrato rattled somewhere between sore throat and pure cacophony.
Diane Feinstein was elegant, poised as always. Rick Warren received a lukewarm response from my vantage point. The moment was all about Obama of course. It was amazing watching the hope of a nation reflected from this man through a bullet proof shield to more a million plus supporters standing in awe.
I have to admit, my favorite part of the entire event, was the Departure Ceremony in which they put George and Laura Bush's asses in a helicopter and sent them back to to the plane that would take them back to Texas. Pennsylvania Avenue rid itself of the trailer trash mentality and returned to its previous glory!!!
Here are a few images from my visit to the nation's capital.
