The flawlessness of Obama’s inauguration was greatly publicized in the media, but was it all really so perfect? This is just for fun, but I hope you all enjoy reading my good friend’s “Insider” account of what it was really like attending Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C.:
As a freshman at Georgetown University, I had the unique opportunity to attend the inauguration of President Obama. Needless to say, over two million people were expected, so my friends and I decided to leave at three in the morning in order to get decent spots. Naturally, we made the proper preparations. After departing with three layers, gloves, hats, and of course, flasks, we marched across the abandoned city to secure our spots. Upon arrival, we couldn’t help but notice the complete and utter lack of security or emergency responders around the Mall. As the crowds got larger, a couple Obama volunteers (don’t even begin to ask me why they were given the responsibility of acting like police officers) fenced in the crowd (who by the way, had not been searched for bombs), leaving only a small exit point. This led to the logical question that, if they were trying to keep us safe, why would they fence in an area full of people that they hadn’t searched? There is no doubt in my mind that if a bomb had gone off, thousands would have died from trampling. Security wasn’t all bad, of course- the Secret Service was on it’s game protecting the President with snipers, helicopters, etc. But the jobs that fell under the responsibility of the DC government showed about as much preparation as sitting around a box of pizza the night before and saying “Soooo, about this inauguration….”. After the inauguration, I grew intimately familiar with half of the DC residents as the entire crowd filed slowly out of these security choke points onto streets that were technically closed by the National Guard. I don’t know if it was yelling at the guy who was rubbing a little too close to my girlfriend, or if it was being wedged between two large women in even larger fur coats, but I truly feel as if I got to know my fellow Americans on an intimate basis after the Inauguration. After this experience I have one thing to say: unless i’m the one getting inaugurated, that is the last time I will ever do that.
The writer from Georgetown interprets the security issue at its extreme. If a liberal were to argue for the lack of security, one would say this is Obama’s practice of entrusting his citizens with transparency that is not blocked by the authoritarian figures whom successfully cloaked Bush and rendered him inaccessible to the general public during his administration. The lack of men in batons and badges (you can also trace this back to the historical state-police intervention in racial demos)represents Obama’s accessibility as the people’s president.
If this guy queers about a crowded place where people bottleneck at the entrance, he obviously has not been in a frat party, a theme park, or a concert in his life. I suppose his girlfriend can come to acknowledge his crowd-phobia.