I'm hoping to see blue painted faces...
VolcanoJen (1000+ posts) Sat Jan-24-09 02:15 PM
Original message
VolcanoJen's Blue-Ticket-To-Nowhere Inauguration Adventure - Now, With Photos!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8137072
Edited on Sat Jan-24-09 03:13 PM by VolcanoJen
Hello everyone,
I realize it's a few days late, but here's the scoop on my Inauguration Day (Mis)Adventure!!
I was one of the Blue-ticketed people who never made it into the Inauguration Ceremony, or, as we like to call it, The Blue Ball Ticket To Nowhere! What a sad and unorganized mess that was. Just massive crowds, no security, no directions, no police presence, no nuthin'. We arrived at the Blue security entrance at 8:30 and waited patiently for three hours in the cold, packed in like penguins, moving forward toward the entrance maybe a few inches every fifteen minutes. Spirits remained high, though, and we chanted "Keep Hope Alive!" and "What's Going On!" at various intervals. At times, we helped clear paths and lift wheelchairs carrying disabled veterans up and out of the massive crowd; we even cleared a path so Tammy Duckworth could escape the masses. Around 11:30, however, the "line" broke down and the thousands behind us surged forward, scattering everyone else in all sorts of directions. In the crowd push, I ended up swept up to the left and face-planted into a tree.
Of course, realizing now we weren't going to see the Inauguration at all, and quite weary of crowds, we high-tailed it up and out of there, standing on 2nd Street behind the Capitol just as the cannon fire went off. Realizing Obama had finally just become President, we hugged and cried with strangers on the street, most of them dejected ticket-holders.
Following that, we were lucky enough to beat the crowd back up to Union Station and ducked into The Dubliner (where "Morning Joe" was filming all week) to lift a pint and a whiskey just in time to see Bush's helicopter lift off, and later, the take-off of FORMER (!!!) Air Force One. It was there that we first met and learned about our Brethren in Inauguration Solidarity, the Purple People stuck in "The Purple Ticket Tunnel of Doom," since the bar was packed with them, as well. They actually seem to have had it worse than we "Blue People" did. We joined in hearty choruses of "Na Na Hey Hey" and "There's No One More Irish Than Barack Obama." (short YouTube here, that's me from the side wearing the stars-n-stripes scarf!)
All in all, it was an absolute blast, and even though we were sorely disappointed to have had tickets and yet saw nothing, I'd still do it over again. It is a real testament to the character and jovial nature of the thousands of us in "line" that nothing awful happened. And celebrating on the street just yards away and later at an Irish bar packed with revelers? Well, that part didn't suck at all.
Here are some whacky pix of the madness and frivolity (all photos taken by Jim Saul, partner-in-Inaug-Shenanigans-Disappointment-Guiness-Lifting-Jameson Toasting-and-Patience; thank you, Jim!! Any times on photos are one hour off due to not resetting the timestamp):
VolcanoJen (1000+ posts) Sat Jan-24-09 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. The Silver Ticket People revolted.
Edited on Sat Jan-24-09 02:46 PM by VolcanoJen
The satellite photo taken at 11:19 am shows large swaths of the Blue, Purple and Silver areas still empty.
However, after arriving home and watching the entire thing on CNN, their crowd shots just before and after Noon show that while the Blue and Purple ticketed areas remained as empty as they did at 11:19, the Silver Area filled in. Everything I've read points to the "Silver People" revolting against security and rushing the barricades. I don't think that was a safe nor wise thing to do in that crush of humanity, but at least they got in, I suppose. The Blue & Purple People just walked away instead, bitterly disappointed, but in relative calm and peace.
Why the Capitol Police and Presidential Inauguration Committee weren't more prepared for the ticketed crowds, well, I'd like some answers, as would thousands of us. Every other color-coded ticket-holder made it in in plenty of time; why the crush only at the Blue, Purple and Silver areas? Walking away at 11:30, we passed the now-clear Orange Ticket checkpoint, while police officers just shrugged at us and refused to let anyone else in.
So many problems could have been solved with a simple bullhorn or two, giving us directions, telling us how better to line up, and letting non-ticketed people in line know they were in the wrong place. It was an Epic Fail and I do hope it is well-investigated so that it never happens again. If it were not for the good will of the people in our "Blue Ball," there could have been a disaster.
Imagine standing in a crush like that surrounded by Sarah Palin supporters we remember from the campaign, for example!!
one would think that barry would have had this better organized.
WolverineDG (1000+ posts) Sat Jan-24-09 02:50 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. For those of us non-ticketed "rabble," it was just as dangerous
I would love to know the name of the genius who designed the maze of dead-ends with the porta-potties. Just about every logical way off of the Mall was blocked by lines of those damn things, & where there weren't porta-potties, there were fences & gates. Since everyone in my area was headed to the right (to the closest open metro station), we kept ending up at these freakin' dead ends & no way around the porta-potties or gates (unless you wanted to climb the damn things). Someone started yelling "GO LEFT! GO LEFT" but the people to the left refused to move. We'd get around one barrier only to be faced with another. Fortunately, everyone remained calm, but had there been an emergency or panic, it would have been highly dangerous. It took me 2 hours to get from the Washington Monument to 17th & I Street NW.
Oh, and I also want the name of the brainiac who thought it would be a good idea to send the SAME ****ING AMBULANCE up 18th Street...as if the crowd weren't moving slowly enough as it was, we had to keep stopping for this damn thing & of course its sirens were going off full-volume too.
I'm glad I went, but dammit, this incompetence in planning really gets to me.
dg
That's the Democratic party for ya.
zulchzulu (1000+ posts) Sun Jan-25-09 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #4
25. I was a Silver Ticket holder and it was a matter of luck we got in
My friend and I had gotten in line at about 7:30... or should I say, gotten to the place where the line started and just went on and on for blocks to where we got near the end, right near 3rd and Independence. That's when the security people (all two of them) said that where we were was the new access point. It suddenly was like a stampede to an area that we all then stood for a couple hours. People were jumping the fence as well as a lot of people who weren't ticket holders joined in.
When We got to the security post, all they were doing was checking bags... not tickets. From there, it was pretty dang crowded... here's my video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pehW81Y0lg
Sorry you got locked out of the proceedings... I know there were a lot of purples and silvers who didn't get to see it too.
K&R
Worth it to watch the video.
