January 18, 2009
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…Chewy wanted to see the pre-Inaugural work so a bunch of us ventured to the Mall after church and lunch. The walk was nice, the fellowship was nice but it was cold and crowded. We only made it to about a few hundred feet of the War War II Memorial, facing west towards the Lincoln Memorial to see the free concert. We had a decent view of several Jumbotrons but so many people were walking through our position it was sometimes hard to see them or even hear what was going on.
Several themes during the event involved history and freedom. And I think this is the reason why my history of the Presidents is pretty lacking. I’d have to say 75% of the quotes came from one of the most famous Republicans that most don’t realize he’s a Republican, Abhram Lincoln, with the rest coming FDR, JFK, Reagan (that was a surprise) and Theodore Roosevelt. I personally liked all the “I witnessed history.” buttons people were wearing. Mostly because every inauguration is history. Then there’s the new slogan “Yes We Can” – which leads me to think we couldn’t before, yet I’m pretty sure we could have and those who wanted to did so.
The parts about freedom I thought were pretty ironic since they were about our freedoms. Freedom from racism. Freedom for those in this country. Freedom this. Freedom that. With an extra side of Freedom Fries. Yet so many of those who voted for Obama and even Obama himself are against the wars in Irag and Afganistan. How do these two connect? What most don’t think is about the moral obligation of the United States to help provide similar freedoms that we have to those around this country. Freedom from cruel and hateful dictators and opressors of the people. Nope, what we really mean when talking about freedom in the United States, it’s more about freedom from morality, freedom from responsibility, freedom from being informed and wanting to stay ignorant. Yep that’s the freedom I was hearing about.
They had several entertainers there and folk from Hollywood. The funniest, at least in my mind, was when Tom Hanks was giving a speech and then they show a shot of the Reflecting Pool while he’s speaking. I could only think of the scene from Forrest Gump where Forrest starts running off the steps of the Lincoln towards the Reflecting Pool yelling “Jenny! Jenny!”
Nonetheless, it was interesting. If anything it seems like people are excited again. That in itself is probably a good thing.
