I made it down a little late to the event. I arrived a bit before three and in the middle of Tom Hanks' speech. Sadly I missed the invocation, hopefully I can find it online somewhere. In Obama’s speech he did again mention “gay and straight” in his litany of all Americans.
I was using this as a bit of a dry-run for the inauguration. The Metro really wasn’t bad, but I don’t think that’s overly meaningful. What I did learn was to watch out for choke points. They have some fences up around the mall, and even when there aren’t security checks, those really slow things down when you’re leaving. Probably best to scout around a little at the start and find a less crowded exit even if it takes you out of your way. Also, they randomly re-opened Pennsylvania avenue and that slowed things considerably. Did see one guy who was being attended to by some soldier medics, think he may have been shoved around a bit too much by the crowd. Did see help arrive for him, so hopefully he’ll be okay.
Above are the rest of my shots of the crowd, the in good part locked down city, the vendors with a sense of entrepreneurialism that reminded me of my visit to China, and the Lincoln memorial from a great distance. Even so, you could really make out Lincoln, they really lit up the interior. Also forces of hate where there in small number protesting the treatment of homosexuals as if they deserve human respect and consideration. Also, the Daughters of the American Revolution got a negative shout-out for not allowing an African-American singer back in the day. The singer, Marian Anderson, instead gave a concert to 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial at Eleanor Roosevelt’s request.
I’ll have some video up later today once I can upload it to youtube.
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