There has been much made of the fact that many or maybe most of those holding purple tickets to the Inauguration of Barack Obama did not get in. There is even a Facebook group numbering over 4,500 of these individuals. I can tell you that at no point did I think that we would not get in and I am sure most others felt the same. These were tickets that were given to staff, donors, people who had worked on the campaign, and families of members of Congress.
We left Brinkley's apartment at 6:30 and headed to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. There were soooo many people and many were running. At that point we realized that we did not leave early enough. The station was packed. The Metro people were great. They were yelling out instructions and directing people. (I am not sure why they just didn't open up the system and make it free) There was an announcement that the Red Line had shut down and we later found out that a woman had fallen on the track. We could not get on the first three trains that came by but finally were able to pack on the forth. Everyone's mood was exuberant. People were singing and chanting O...Bama, O...Bama. It was fantastic. We had no difficulty changing lines to get off at Judiciary Square where our ticket instructed us to exit. When we did get off we were not sure where we were. There were no people directing the crowds. Our ticket indicated that our gate was at First and Louisiana....just where that was in connection to where we were was unclear. The street in front of us was absolutely packed so we decided to go back around the station and head toward Union Station. Hundreds of people were streaming down the street going in the opposite direction so we took a right onto another street and we could see the Capital. We found First and kept moving....then stop! We were in a huge clump of people that was not moving. There was a bus at the intersection parked so that it was blocking the street. We were beside the Hyatt (if anyone knows where that is) and Jesse Jackson came out. I am not sure where he went though because you could absolutely not move at all. This is where we stayed for about 2 hours. All the people around us were funny and friendly. There was a lawyer and his wife from Montana, a couple from Boston, an elderly woman from DC that was my height (we started the BUTT CLUB because that's all we could see...butts), a young couple all dressed up who worked in DC, people from everywhere. The lawyer was very tall and could see what was going on so he kept us informed. We were "the purple people" and proud. There were people around us who did not have tickets and we encouraged them to leave so they could get on the Mall. At no point was there ANY direction from anyone; no signs, no nothing. But be assured there was no pushing or rudeness of any kind. Something happened around 9:45 and the crowd started moving and all of a sudden we were at the purple gate. There was a brief moment of pandemonium with people running in all directions...Pat kept pulling me to the fence where we entered the security area through literally a door. After we got through we were in front of a row of about 10 security checkpoints. I looked behind me to see that the door had been closed. I assumed that they just did not want huge numbers of people in the area at a time and were letting people in in small numbers. I did wonder how they were going to process so many people before noon, but at no time did it occur to me that people would not get in. THIS was SECURITY!!! There were only 3 people in front of us and it took forever....they even examined each coin in Pat's pocket. You had to walk very slowly through the machine and when you got on the other side there was a guy with a huge automatic weapon (am I in Gitmo I wondered). We moved quickly...we had to cross over the motorcade route and it was lined body to body with military people apparently from all the branches...I thought that was cool. We noticed that there really were not many people and there was no distinction between the west and the north tickets. We positioned ourselves dead center with the podium and and I built a mound with the mulch....it was about 2 feet tall, so for the time being I was almost 7 feet tall and could see everything. It did seem odd that the area did not get full since a quarter of a million tickets had been given out, but I still did not think for one minute that it was because people did not get in.
I do not know what the problem was but I do know that someone did not think all of this through. Now as I recount the morning there is NO WAY all those people were going to get in at the rate they were admitting them. DC is VERY lucky that something horrible did not happen. It is a miracle that people were not trampled and everyone kept their heads. They knew how many people were coming and if there was doubt they should have been able to figure it out when Washington DC was packed the day before...did they think people had come to see the Wizards play?
I have come to the conclusion that the purple gate was closed early because the people coming through that gate had to cross the motorcade route and that the Secret Service ordered it closed. The safety of all those in the Capital (aka the government of the US) and the President past and present was the priority. But someone needed to think about all those people...remember it was about 15 degrees.
We left Brinkley's apartment at 6:30 and headed to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. There were soooo many people and many were running. At that point we realized that we did not leave early enough. The station was packed. The Metro people were great. They were yelling out instructions and directing people. (I am not sure why they just didn't open up the system and make it free) There was an announcement that the Red Line had shut down and we later found out that a woman had fallen on the track. We could not get on the first three trains that came by but finally were able to pack on the forth. Everyone's mood was exuberant. People were singing and chanting O...Bama, O...Bama. It was fantastic. We had no difficulty changing lines to get off at Judiciary Square where our ticket instructed us to exit. When we did get off we were not sure where we were. There were no people directing the crowds. Our ticket indicated that our gate was at First and Louisiana....just where that was in connection to where we were was unclear. The street in front of us was absolutely packed so we decided to go back around the station and head toward Union Station. Hundreds of people were streaming down the street going in the opposite direction so we took a right onto another street and we could see the Capital. We found First and kept moving....then stop! We were in a huge clump of people that was not moving. There was a bus at the intersection parked so that it was blocking the street. We were beside the Hyatt (if anyone knows where that is) and Jesse Jackson came out. I am not sure where he went though because you could absolutely not move at all. This is where we stayed for about 2 hours. All the people around us were funny and friendly. There was a lawyer and his wife from Montana, a couple from Boston, an elderly woman from DC that was my height (we started the BUTT CLUB because that's all we could see...butts), a young couple all dressed up who worked in DC, people from everywhere. The lawyer was very tall and could see what was going on so he kept us informed. We were "the purple people" and proud. There were people around us who did not have tickets and we encouraged them to leave so they could get on the Mall. At no point was there ANY direction from anyone; no signs, no nothing. But be assured there was no pushing or rudeness of any kind. Something happened around 9:45 and the crowd started moving and all of a sudden we were at the purple gate. There was a brief moment of pandemonium with people running in all directions...Pat kept pulling me to the fence where we entered the security area through literally a door. After we got through we were in front of a row of about 10 security checkpoints. I looked behind me to see that the door had been closed. I assumed that they just did not want huge numbers of people in the area at a time and were letting people in in small numbers. I did wonder how they were going to process so many people before noon, but at no time did it occur to me that people would not get in. THIS was SECURITY!!! There were only 3 people in front of us and it took forever....they even examined each coin in Pat's pocket. You had to walk very slowly through the machine and when you got on the other side there was a guy with a huge automatic weapon (am I in Gitmo I wondered). We moved quickly...we had to cross over the motorcade route and it was lined body to body with military people apparently from all the branches...I thought that was cool. We noticed that there really were not many people and there was no distinction between the west and the north tickets. We positioned ourselves dead center with the podium and and I built a mound with the mulch....it was about 2 feet tall, so for the time being I was almost 7 feet tall and could see everything. It did seem odd that the area did not get full since a quarter of a million tickets had been given out, but I still did not think for one minute that it was because people did not get in.
I do not know what the problem was but I do know that someone did not think all of this through. Now as I recount the morning there is NO WAY all those people were going to get in at the rate they were admitting them. DC is VERY lucky that something horrible did not happen. It is a miracle that people were not trampled and everyone kept their heads. They knew how many people were coming and if there was doubt they should have been able to figure it out when Washington DC was packed the day before...did they think people had come to see the Wizards play?
I have come to the conclusion that the purple gate was closed early because the people coming through that gate had to cross the motorcade route and that the Secret Service ordered it closed. The safety of all those in the Capital (aka the government of the US) and the President past and present was the priority. But someone needed to think about all those people...remember it was about 15 degrees.
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