One Man’s Journey from Juneau to Obamaland.
Anyone who has been reading this blog since September will remember Mudflatter Doug. He’s the guy that painted a big green sign that said, “Palin Lies” and headed out for the cruise ship docks in Juneau. The story of his day and the reactions he received was amazing. Doug became an example of what one person, what any of us can do, even when we feel powerless to do anything. His original post can be read HERE.
So, when I got an email from Doug telling me how excited he was to have had his name selected from hundreds submitted to Senator Lisa Murkowski to attend the Inauguration, it made my day. I emailed back and asked Doug if he would be willing to write an account of his experience to share with the Mudflats community. Following is Doug’s response, and a wonderful story that will surely make you feel like you were there. I know I did.
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It was about 5:30 am and my wife, and I were standing side by side in a packed Metro car about two stops from the station. It was Inauguration morning. We had delayed the inevitable for too long. Yesterday we had picked up two tickets for one of the reserved Inaugural viewing areas located east of the Capitol, near the Capitol Reflecting Pool.. We won them in in Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s lottery. The problem: there were three of us. I was determined that my 9 year old son should see the Inauguration from the closest possible point of view. Since he had briefly “disappeared” while under my watch during Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial, I knew my wife was more than a little apprehensive about leaving the two of us to our own devices in a crowd that could number in the millions. So it was decided, she and my son would take the tickets, and spend the morning in the reserved viewing area near the Capitol’s Reflecting Pool. I would try and get as close as possible and watchfrom one of the general viewing areas further east down the Mall. Afterwards we’d meet at a centrally located Jumbo-tron (one of the giant TV screens located along the Mall). We double checked the map and finalized our rendez vous point.
The train stopped, doors opened and I jumped out onto the platform. To be honest, I have spent most of my life living in small towns. I have traveled a bit and have seen crowds. But nothing could prepare me for for the wall of humanity I was about to join for the next eight hours, dodging, surging, bumping into, squeezing against, laughing and cheering with. I grew up on a farm and tend to think of any large group as a “herd”. This was a great big herd.
It was early, I was both very excited and also one cup of coffee “over the line” so I ducked right into the flow. I had just stepped onto an exit escalator when the one to the right of me failed, it was loaded with about a hundred people, and sent everyone sliding backwards. It happened pretty fast. One minute everyone was headed up, and the next everyone was screaming and back-pedaling. Luckily no one was hurt. Everyone ended up at the base of the escalator, stepped over to the next one and started up again. This started me thinking about my Safety Engineer father-in-law. I quickly reviewed his “list of things that can kill you.” I didn’t remember him mentioning Presidential Inaugurations. Besides I was already at the top and headed toward the turnstiles. The “herd” came to a stop and we waited for everyone to pass through the turnstiles. At this point I was trying to focus on the station’s high arched ceilings, standing on tip-toes looking ahead to an exit. I noticed that a woman in front of me had a large brown spider running down the back of her white winter coat. I mention this to the woman next to me and she said shouldn’t talk so loud it might start a panic. The Great Inaugural Subway Spider Panic.
I emerged from the Metro station. It was still cold, dark, and foggy. I followed the masses in search of an entry point to the Mall. I can only describe my trip to the Mall as controlled chaos. Thousands of us walked east down Independence avenue looking for a way in to the Mall’s General Viewing Area. I walked fast, dodging stragglers and watching which way everyone was going. I grabbed a red-hatted Inaugural volunteer and asked the best way. She pointed east and said “about 15th street”. Since I was on 9th street I was pretty discouraged at the prospect of walking another 6 blocks in the heavy foot traffic. I kept walking. I was front of the Arts and Industries Building when some of the crowd turned right, towards the Mall.
I blindly followed, hoping someone in front either saw an opening or had a pair of bolt cutters. We stopped in the dark between two old red brick buildings. I was about to resume walking east when I heard someone yell “open gate here” On a narrow service road stood several hundred people, all patiently waiting their turn to pass through a 15′ wide gate. This time I thought about South American soccer games and made up a fictional beginning to a government safety video “Billy just knew he shouldn’t follow the crowd…” I said as much to a women standing next to me. She didn’t think going through the gate was the best idea either. She told me she was a lawyer and constantly thought about these types of things. I let her go first hoping she wouldn’t later sue me. After a few minutes we all safely passed through the gate and after a quick walk through a courtyard we were all on the Mall. This is where I truly entered Obamaland.
Look, I’m a white guy from the Midwest who’s been living in Alaska for over twenty years. The only cultural diversity I’ve experienced was living in Petersburg, Alaska where it was rumored a few folks still spoke Norwegian. My son is learning Tlinget.
As I slowly got used to my surroundings, I found myself swept up in a kind of mass excitement and happiness that was overwhelming. Here it was, 6:30 on a cold January morning. Any sane person would be watching this on TV and these folks were out strolling through the dust and confusion. We would wait over four hours, standing side-by side. We tried to find a reasonable amount of space to watch Barack and Michelle. Because here down in general viewing, it wasn’t the President and First Lady or President and Mrs. Obama. It was Barack and Michelle. People carried their photos, wore their faces on pins and hats. They wore Obama gear like a talisman; a lucky charm. And as I squeezed into place. I was caught up in their anticipation. It was like standing around with thousands of kids waiting for Christmas day or a visit from that favorite uncle who gives you cool presents and money. We couldn’t wait. I’m not saying it didn’t stink at times. My legs started to get tired and every now and then the wind would whip up sending the windchill down to what felt like -10.
A couple of boys circulated through the crowd handing out little flags on sticks. Everyone talked and laughed and tried not to think about how long we would have to wait. People continued to arrive pushing us closer and closer together until we were all nearly shoulder to shoulder.
Folks quietly moved through, looking for friends or ferrying boxes of food or drink from the snack bar. I never thought about it, but being in a big crowd is a lot like being on the ocean. There is a motion. A drift. A current. I actually found myself drifting back and forth. We were continually moving up two steps, back three steps. After a couple of hours of this I kind of lost track of time. The Jumbo-trons fired up just after sun-up, and began to replay Sunday’s Inaugural Concert. Everyone got really excited until they realized that it was a tape. One by one the performers appeared. Everyone loved Stevie Wonder, and the ladies behind me were particularly fond of Denzel Washington. And Beyonce well… One guy told me. “That Bono, he’s ‘out there’. He’ll say anything. He’s crazy”. I was told that Samuel L. Jackson was the “hardest working man in Hollywood “cause every time you turned around he was in a movie.
At one point a guy in front held up one of those green folding chairs. It was kind of blocking our view of the “tron”.. the crowd behind me started chanting “put the chair down, put the chair down!”. The guy kept the chair held high. Somebody yelled back that they forgot the “magic” word and someone yelled “Put the chair down: Fool!”. Everyone bust up laughing and the guy took the chair down. By ten o’clock were were really jammed together. I was really cold and at one point I stared down at my feet and thought about how little space I occupied. A footprint about the size of a page from the newspaper. I tried to meditate, I shifted my thoughts to beaches, hot coffee, warmer cloths.
Then the real show started. The Jumbo-trons went to live feed, we watched celebrities and dignitaries as they arrived at the Capitol, chatted with other VIPs and were escorted to their seats. The crowd’s first big cheer went up for Colin Powell, then Nancy Pelosi, then Al Gore, then Jimmy Carter. It turned into a pattern, a face would appear on the screen, flags would wave and people would whoop and call out the person’s name or shout encouragement. This turned into a cheerful pattern that lasted for the rest of the morning. At one point the crowd started to chant O-BAM-A, O-BAM-A, O-BAM-A. When Michelle appeared on screen it was pandemonium.
But it wasn’t all good-natured cheering. When Cheney was wheeled onto the stage looking more like old Mr. Potter from Its a Wonderful Life than the outgoing Vice President, a few people booed, a few shouted curses. But most of the crowd’s animosity was reserved for George Bush. When his name was announced and his image appeared on screen, the crowed BOOED, I mean flat out BOOED. It sounded like a Flyer’s hockey game. I looked at the guy beside me and he looked back a bit surprised and he shrugged his shoulders. That was it. What more could you say or do but feel a little strange and shrug your shoulders?
Then it happened. I had been dreading the moment but here it was. I heard a guy behind me say “I wonder if Sarah Palin is here”. I had let on to the people nearest me that I was from Alaska and I had become a minor celebrity. I turned around and said “She better not be. I came all the way to DC to get the hell away from her!” The guy was grinning from ear to ear. Everyone laughed and luckily, no one mentioned it again.
Just prior to the invocation, the announcer asked for everyone to “please stand”. Ironically, just under two million people were already on their feet. During the prayer I heard folks chime in with an ”Amen!” or a “Thank you, Lord!” Arethea Franklin stepped up to the mike she sang God Bless America, and the folks around me joined in. When Joe Biden stepped up to the podium I knew that all of this was real and all our waiting was finally over. After Biden was sworn in, I heard someone yell “Come on everybody we’re half way there!” More cheering, punctuated by ”Amen!” and “That’s right!” Then I realized that I was among people who saw this as a journey, a place to get to, a destination. I didn’t know if the crowd could wait any longer. Then there was a musical piece by a quartet led by Yo Yo Ma. I didn’t really hear any of it, I was watching the people around me. Then Barack stepped up to join Chief Justice Roberts. I could see the Capitol, shining pale white and pink in the winter light, giant flags hanging from the porticos . It looked like a painting. I watched on screen as President Elect Obama laid his hand on Lincoln’s Bible and it was done. At that moment I felt the crowd surge, it was like all the air being let out of a giant balloon. The sky around me was a blur of waving flags. Everyone cheered and shouted and called out for Barack, change, hope and country.
When Barack turned to speak, there was silence. The woman beside me handed me her camera and pointed at the screen. I snapped a shot of the image on the Jumbo-tron. I bent down and asked if she needed another. She shook her head and smiled looking at the blurred digital image of the new President on her little camera screen, then lifted her head and listened to the rest of the speech. By the time Obama finished I was exhausted, and I had to find my family.
As I moved through the crowd, I thought about that September day when I mounted the steps of the cruise ship dock in Juneau with a cardboard sign. Alone. Now I was surrounded by 2 million people cheering, and waving flags, and soaking up what I can only describe as pure joy. We had been hopeful back in September, and what then seemed like a dim light at the end of a tunnel, turned into a sunburst right before my eyes. I basked in the warmth that was probably mild hypothermia, and was thankful that my son was up there somewhere watching and listening. I was looking forward to sharing stories with him about our visit to Obamaland. And at that moment it was all good.
Wow, You were right, AKM. I too, felt like I was there. Cold and crushed, but elated and filled with Hope! Great story Doug!
In fact – that is how I found Mudflats – I read his story then and to read this now. If I believed in signs this would be one.
Yes, why not believe in it now, the most incredible things have happened in these last months.
That was fantastic. Thank you for sharing Doug.
Great story! Thanks for sharing!
Doug, I hope you know that you inspired an awful lot of people.
Hilary confirmed… FYI murkowski voted yes
Doug – you are so lucky to have been there !! …….got goose bumps for a second……..thanks for sharing !!!
Doug’s evocation was so real my feet almost hurt from the standing!
from the ADN:
Alaska band gets a wave from new president
“I don’t know what I was singing,” dancer Rex Okakok joked in a light-hearted phone interview at the tail end of a day that began at 1 a.m. Alaska time.
“I was just pointing my finger at Obama and … waving at him and throwing kisses and all that kind of stuff.”
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/661963.html
Doug, thank you for your very “you are there” report. It brought tears to my eyes – again. So funny about the “is Palin here” remark! I know Governor Snowflake wasn’t there, but who did represent Alaska?
Kewl!
Thanks, Doug. Thanks for everything.
Palin would have been the turd in the punch bowl at the party.
Doug, you are an excellent writer, and this is by far the best report I have read about the “Inauguration Experience”. Thank you!!
P.S. Good job not creating The Great Inaugural Subway Spider Panic!
Wow, how completely cool! Doug, if you see this, pop on over to the Forum for info on a Juneau Mudstock, if you’re back by the end of the month.
What a great account, Doug……I wouldn’t have handled the clausterphobia as well as you did, but would have LOVED being there, nonetheless! Your story helped paint the picture from the ‘inside’ ~ it was ever so great on TV. but you got it in 3D. Well done!
You brought me to tears yet again, Doug. Thanks for a beautifully told story, and for bringing all us along on your journey.
Wow…you did what all good writers do: put the readers there with you. Now, every time I see a spider this summer…heh heh.
Sincere thanks for sharing with us mudpups at home.
Thank you so much for sharing this- you are a beautiful writer. What a gift you have given to those of us who had to watch at home (or, in my case, crowded around a tiny laptop with my son’s kindergarten class).
Well, now that I have gotten rid of the lump in my throat and the tear in my eye, I must say I have to eat crow. As I sat in my warm, cozy house watching the “Big Day”, I said to my friend what were all those crazy people doing out there, when they could watch it at home. Obviously, I missed out on a lot. Thanks, Doug!
WOW!!! I, too, had to clear my throat and dry my eyes before I could see to type this response.
Doug, your words put me right in the thick of it with you! Thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us. I am looking forward to a 2nd installment (?) on your continuing adventure:ie..locating your family and your son’s impressions and adventures he and Mom experienced.
(If you can find the time, of course.)
Thank you for the link to the first story. Thank you Doug, your story was wonderful, you catch yourself laughing then crying while reading such a tremendous story, it could have not been written any better. May the spider and not Palin be with you….lol, sorry couldn’t help it.
Thanks Doug for sharing your experience with us. Like others, your story prompted tears of joy again. Maybe you can follow up with responses/impressions from your wife and son as well. Regards,
Lyn
I couldn’t go, but was texting with Alaska and DC friends on the ground while watching. Modern tech is unreal. Thank you so much, Doug, for your account. A very special family time and historic time for all of us.
Can you imagine trying to explain this to ourselves 30 years ago:
Yeah, I am watching live from a remote town in Alaska, the first African American President being sworn into office, while talking and writing to a friend that is there on a small palm held cordless device. Aretha Franklin sings, and Diane Feinstein, a senior Senator, introduced the President.
Total science fiction! And we are living it. Yes. We. Can.
I had to stop halfway and get my eyes cleared. I love the word “Pandemonium”. So evocative.
I feel like I was there. I have been in that sort of crowd before, never tolerating it well…..but I know that I would have loved being there, no matter what, like you.
Thank you Doug. And I recall reading about your trip to the docks when it first posted. I felt proud then, and even more so now.
My tears are such a mixture of pride, happiness and relief. It’s done.
YES WE DID – ELECT OBAMA
YES WE WILL – CHANGE THIS NATION
Thanks Doug. what a great report
Hurray Doug! Not only did you give my day a boost today while reading your account, you REALLY cracked me up with your previous story about being on the Juneau docks with your sign since I live here. I wasn’t that brave – I just hid out in my pajamas and used the tubes for my protest of SP. My husband reminded me that many, or most of our clients are Republicans and maybe running around with the signs I was going to make for our own Juneau protest might be considered objectionable (I had to agree – I was really angry at the time and my slogans were the nastiest of all that I have seen before or since – funny, too but very pointed!). I am proud to know that you are a Juneauite – and I certainly hope you can post your experience in a Letter to the Editor or such so that other locals can enjoy your storytelling about Obamaland.
Doug, thank you so much for sharing your day, you are a proper gent.
Normally, I really don’t like big crowds, my SO is always trying to get me to go to the footie, but no chance. I was so jealous of everyone there though, watching history in the making and wishing myself into the throng. It was tremendous.
UK Lady – I’ll guess…….a “footie” is a football (soccer to us) game ?? If so – those fans are rowdy – I would not go either……..
I’m thrilled to have been able to experience the Inauguration through your eyes!
Thanks for the heartfelt sharing of your experience. I got to be there through your eyes – thanks for the grand time!
Yes we DID…WaaaaHooo!
I actually got up this morning and things just felt different! Did anyone else feel that way?
@ Goalie in NM
YES YES YES YES!
There is sanity, intelligence and compassion living inside the man who we chose as our President. There are no words to describe how that feels to me.
I have what we call in Hawaii “chicken skin.” Excellent writing, Doug. Thanks for that!
2 words– Thank you.
Yes Goalie in NM I too felt different this morning. I guess I have been so apprehensive since Nov. I was just so relieved yesterday I was utterly exhausted. I am so proud of this family and the hope they offer us.
Lucky Dog, I mean Doug!!!!!!!!!!!! What a journey, moment of a lifetime!
Off topic, but possibly of interest to mudflatters: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_re_us/palin_media
Finally the news has figured out & is reporting that she makes all of this stuff up to keep herself in the public eye? Wow, what took them so long? And that her criticisms of the media are designed to appeal to the lower-than-low base? It took some professors to point that out to them?
Well, maybe now they can do us all a favor and discontinue reporting about her unless it is about governing/state news.
And who in the world has been talking about her kids? Not the mainstream media! Even the stories about Levi were actually about HER and whether or not she had anything to do with his getting a job that he should not have been able to get.
Thanks for sharing your experience Doug! When I saw everyone waving those little flags it was an incredible sight on TV. Wish I had been there myself…
Austintx
HaHa – Yes footie is the same as your soccer I think. But it is ‘sacred’, known as THE FOOTIE, as in – are you going to ‘the footie’ on Saturday. Apparently I don’t know what I am missing!
Personally I can guess, freezing cold, no clean toilets, queueng for hours, rowdy crowds, bad coffee, soggy chips etc. Only for President Obama would I suffer this.
I remember the story….
talk about going full circle. From sitting on the docks alone feeling a bit unsafe, sad, little hope in the beginning to being in a crowd of almost two million strangers filled with love and hope and happiness.
Thank you Doug for sharing your story. ..Thank you. What we went through in between.
I was really sick all fall during the last six weeks or so of the campaign. Really bad headaches and what for lack of a better term i will call ‘vibrational chaos’.
Truly seemed like there was a contest of wills going on between two realms.
Even the night Obama’s win was announced i felt a lot of trepidation. But between then and now, as some posters above have commented, things have sorted themselves out and they DEFINITELY ‘do feel different’.
Seeing the celebrations from all over the world was so very uplifting. Awesome! Even the McMurdo Station crew got into the act !
And last night there was an amazing Frontline documentary on Obama on PBS. Look for it to be rerun or find it at pbs.org if you haven’t seen it. I only wish that SWMNBN would watch it, that voice asking ‘Just who is Barack Obama, really’ ? at the ugly Septober rallies is still echoing in my mind . . .
Loved hearing this, thank-you Doug for braving the cold and crowds and reporting to us chickens who would have had full blown panic attacks. I am still awaiting word on my niece’s trip (o:
Minor correction – Aretha sang “My Country ’tis of Thee” which I thought a poignant choice.
What a great day for our world and to Alaskans – yes, we care and yes, we All can. Never give up true values (o:
Well, that got the eyes all watery all over again. Beautiful Doug, thank you!!
Thank you Doug for sharing. I bet you never thought your trip to the cruise ship with a Palin Lies sign would take you all the way to the Inauguration!
Awesome – thanks for sharing your experience. I remember your original post about taking the sign down to the ship, and the responses you got. And you’re right — it’s been a journey and we made it. I’m glad you and your family were there to celebrate it in person.
South Side Chicago
Thanks Doug for your early ‘community organizing’ for President Obama! Yes, YOU did! Wonderful writing, looking forward to more. AKM has allowed mudflatters a place to exchange stories in a meaningful way. Thank you AKM and crew–bloggers indeed.
Darnit, I thought I was done crying!
A heartwarming account…thank you so much for writing your story. Well done!
From a native of Petersburg…Virginia
Great reporting, but I confess, after you saw the big spider on that woman it was hard for me to concentrate on the rest. All I could think of was: Did you kill the spider? Did you tell the woman with the spider about it? Or did you just keep walking and let that spider cause a heart attack by popping up elsewhere in that woman’s clothes later on??
C’mon, Doug…inquiring minds want to know!
Mudflatter Doug, many thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing this! My husband, son, and I went to the DC Mudflats on Monday, and we went to the Mall on Monday night after the Mudflats get together. Even Monday night, the air was electric, and there were thousands of people there. We couldn’t go to the Mall on Tuesday because my husband’s getting over a bad cold, but we watched it from our hotel.
I loved reading your account of what we missed. Thanks so much for letting us see it through your eyes!
I can’t believe I was reading a report from you who came all the way from Alaska to experience the day in D.C. I’m about 10 miles from the DC line, but I watched it on TV since I had a bad experience facing 3000 people after seeing the July 4th fireworks one year… Instead of facing the crowd, I dressed up our four dogs in red/white/blue pom poms! It sounds like you had an exciting day. Your report added a special finishing touch on my memory of the historical event seen on TV! Thank you for being brave enough to go and to write such a wonderful report!
Thanks, Doug, for writing. Your words vividly filled in another aspect of what this beautiful, wonderful day was like.
Doug, thank you for the wonderful report of your experience! Once agin, like others, I am in tears, just reading it.
Susan in PA (13:38:17) :
Doug, you are an excellent writer….
—
Here, Here! I would have not been able to handle the crowds after a bad experience in NYC after the Xmas tree lighting the first winter I was in NYC, but your writing really had me there. I’ll admit to being choked up, too.
Doug said in his account of the inauguration: “As I moved through the crowd, I thought about that September day when I mounted the steps of the cruise ship dock in Juneau with a cardboard sign. Alone.”
I remember that was one of the first things I read on any Alaska progressive blog. It really hit home for me.
Wow, not only are you a gifted writer, you are a selfless dad and husband! Please share your wife and son’s impressions of the day if you are able. I am absolutely thrilled that you got to make your inaugural trip of a lifetime!
OMG, that was a remarkable, super, intense and perfect story.
Thank you for that writing.
Wonderful Doug –
Am so glad you and your family got the opportunity to participate in this historic event. Your words brought tears to my eyes.
Thank you.
Wonderful report Doug, so fitting that one of the first post I read here in Mudflats was your one man sign vidigal in the pre-election days. How far we have all come, sharing our hopes and fears here with other Mudpuppies. As a Mudsenior, I’m grateful you are brave enough to go where I no longer care to personally travel. I made my first trip to Washington DC shortly after Kent State in May of 1970, among 100,000 demonstrators (not to pretty but I didn’t end up in jail) and my second trip eleven years later in Sept. of 1981 that time along with 260,000 marching for solidarity and protesting Regan’s anti union admin. Sometime in the 90′s I stopped matching and started rocking my grandbaby, hoping the next generation would get it right. I think Obama has given us great hope and excitement for a better future. I look forward to reading the rest of the story.
Of all the people to win the lottery to the Inauguration, Doug, you are the most deserved.
A wonderfully written experience, braving the ocean of multitudes, thank you for that. You’re one brave soul, Sir, as is your family.
This was a wonderful story Doug. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It was a great day for our country!
Yes we can!!!
Thanks Doug. I laughed, I cried and I got scared – I hate spiders. So cool to read. Excellent….my feet even feel a little cold now.
new post
Hey Doug: You have pulled my heart strings with your vividly well written story. I was actually there and progressed with you on the escalator going backwards, to not really knowing which way to find the opening, to you getting into the mall,andwatching the crowd swell. I actually felt the frigid bone chilling weather and at the same time with all the maladies you went through, you and millions were there and braved the elments and were able to be a part of history that I think will never occur again.
With that said, my view from my home of this historical event paled by comparison. I am so envious, but so lucky to have such a vivid rendition of what took place. I was actually there with my flag among the herd because you made it so real. Thank you so much for sharing in such an indepth way. I am like the other Mudpups, awaiting the experiences of your wife and son.
You have proved that Alaska has superior intelligence in Alaska and that Sarah Palin is not representative of Alaska with her low I.Q.
Thanks for a moving account of a historical event. You put us there.
Many thanks from Berlin, where we only managed to get 1/10th as many people out for BHO… fortunately a few of us saw him closer up at the Adlon…
now let’s all hold tight and see where it goes… again thanks!
Thank you. I have wondered long about you since reading about your day alone at the ship docks. Thank you for doing that. It encouraged me to know you were out there taking a stand. Thank you again for sharing your hypothermia, joy and deep feelings with me too. It warmed me down to my toes.
thanks Doug, you are a very brave man and i think very kind too. it was a wonderful occasion. imagine, 2,000,000 people and not one arrest. not one foot out of line. just millions of people loving on each other all over the world..love b
wonderfully written, doug. thank you so much.
now, when are we going to hear from your son and your wife?
please, AKmuckraker, can we have more firsthand accounts of january 20?
Check out this aerial view of D.C.
http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day
Excellent account! I agree with the many posters who have stated what a fine writer you are. Truly, you write better than most of my law students. You are an intelligent person whose heart is in the right place. I hope you consider running for political office. Juneau being the bluest part of the state, I think you’d stand a good chance of getting elected. In any case, you have given your son such a fine example of being an involved, caring citizen. And you’ve also given him the wonderful historical experience of attending the inauguration.
OH, and p.s. – I meant to comment about your sit-in at the cruise terminal (I’ve walked by there when I was in Juneau and you described it well). That kind of action is like throwing a stone in the pond. The ripples keep on spreading. You gave everyone who passed you (whether they openly acknowledged you or not) something to think about. And while they were thinking about it, they were doubtless talking about it, and giving others something to think about.
You’ll never know how many people to whom they repeated the story, or how many votes you influenced that day. A single person often makes much more of a difference than we can imagine.
Hope you enjoyed your visit. Were you able to see any other parts of town while you were here?
As a local, I stayed home and watched on TV with my kids. Our schools were out for the day. It was breathtaking to see the shots of the crowds.
I went to one of the Clinton Inagurations some years back and it was cold and crowded, at about 500k people. I can’t imagine what it was like for this one.
@Grammy in PA (07:11:04) :
Thanks! That is awesome!
InJuneau
I couldn’t believe it, all the little “ants” on the ground!!
InJuneau
Hubby & I decided to take a three day weekend trip to D.C. in April – he grew up in PA and has never been there and I want to visit it again. Should be very cool, NOT as cool as the inauguration but cool!
Thank you Doug. These mudflat accounts make the whole event more personal and even more exciting.
Lukwil aam, very nice as my people say. Im happy for you, and thanks for taking a stand.