Reaffirming the Greatness of Our Nation

Our corner of the Inauguration, our video of the Oath

To see our part of the crowd listening and reacting to Barack Obama's Oath, please click on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adS-Ktr9Wt8

and below, in one of our sections about 'the day', there is a really nice panorama of our part of the crowd!

so much has been given to us, in the Capitol

One of our happiest times during this entire week was last night just after dusk, when we finished a day of walking up, down and around DC with a long walk on the mall. It was spectacular, with the clear white lights illuminating the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, with a deep blue night sky and stars above. To the side was the White House. As there have been all this week, there were lots of little vignettes going on all around us, lots of parents showing off the mall to their children, a few foreign visitors, a few VIP tourists being cycled around in one of the bicycle tuk-tuks, a group of about six exuberant youngish black visitors doing fun poses in front of the Monument, faces gazing out towards the white house. The evening was absolutely spectacular. Once again, Washington DC made me tear up. Just from walking around.

I feel completely like a born again patriot this week! the wonder today was the amazing riches of artwork and science and ancient relics, in all the museums, that collectors gave, free and clear, to their country, to display! Sure they were rich privileged folks in many cases - the Mellons, the Randolphs, the whoevers -- but to give any one of these gorgeous paintings, by Monet and Cassatt and Degas and van Gogh and Renoir and Rubens and Raphael and Miro and O'Keefe and Rembrandt and all of them, that they could have kept and looked at privately with their wealthy friends, or sold for hard cash -- that was really grand and generous. And there are so many. The riches of the National Gallery are amazing.

Today on our plane home, we met a couple who shared a story: yesterday they met a tourist, a dad with his kids, walking around, and he told them, he felt bad because he wanted to show them more, but after the cost of lodgings and meals, he did not have enough money - - and they had the pleasure of filling him in, that everything in the museums in the mall can be enjoyed free and clear, it's all there for us Americans and our guests to visit and enjoy. There are so many choices also. We had a great time in the Smithsonian Natural history museum, looking at meteors and moon rocks and dinosaurs and egyptian sarcophagi. one of my favorites is the minerals collections and in there, is a collection of spectacular crystals and gems from the mines in Bisbee, Arizona... because some rich miner had a collection that he willed to the Smithsonian so we could all enjoy it.

Throughout the past 230 years, people have felt huge gratitude and respect for this country, and have chosen to give back. Not just material goods, but experiences and knowledge. In Jefferson's house there were all these wonders of the west, giant elk antlers and tipis and mastodon bones, that he purposefully set up in his antechamber, so that while his guests waited to talk to him, they could get a little free education. Similarly today, the free education provided in Washington, is a joy. The only sad thing, to me, was that the national gallery of art was easy to get around, hardly crowded at all, and the gallery in the Smithsonian that holds the Hope Diamond was absolutely packed. We need to do a better job of teaching all our kids about what's really important in life, and why. My bias, I know, but I got so much from my parents teaching me, and I am so glad I have seen these great works.

We did go to the Phillips Gallery, which is private. But this had been a favorite of mine 30 years ago, and it was great, to see paintings which had become so familiar to me when I was 19. What was different was me. Age and experience cause me to see very different things in the paintings than I had perceived at age 19. Some, like Georges Braque, I think I had really liked because I was supposed to; now I could enjoy them, but feel a lot more discriminatory. I really enjoyed feeling new reactions, while looking at the great painting there, The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir -- because now I see that it's still just as beautiful but now it's no longer just a great painting, I see how different it looks to me now, everyone in it is way younger tan I am, I see such youth, all these glowing tipsy young muscular men and flirting girls, and it's fun to see who is enamoured of who and who is self absorbed, all these facial expressions I probably missed the meaning of, and still all in the warm hum of a summer day with plenty of wine. Great art but also, what fun they were all having. (this painting is so easy to find, search Google images for Renoir boating party)

Anyway seeing the effect of all these people giving - the rich giving their art, the explorers giving their maps, the miner giving his crystals and we the taxpayers giving the monuments, including the great Washington Monument whose color changes halfway up showing how it had had to be abandoned for the civil war -- these were really great in their effect on me. makes me so happy to participate in this country, with my taxes and in other ways. we owe a lot to our country's creators and to individuals who we will never know who have sustained and enriched it.

Around DC...The Grand and Hilarious

Amy wanted to do a little tour of her old haunts in DC, as she worked here as an aide to Senator Alan Cranston when she was 20, back in 1978. We found her old apartment house, just east of the Capitol. Amy said the house looked exactly the same, although the neighborhood has gentrified quite a bit. It used to be quite the low rent district, but now is obviously high rent.

We walked around the Capitol building, quite beautiful, but still with all sorts of bleachers and seats on the west side from yesterday's Inauguration. We then went to the National Gallery. The east building had some wonderful French paintings, all fairly small, therefor the exhibit (which is permanent) was called the Small French Painting Exhibit. They were wonderful small paintings by many French masters. There was also an exhibit of art from Pompeii.

From here we took the underground passage to the main building of the National Gallery. There are many famous paintings here, but my favorites are the Impressionists, especially Van Gogh and Gauguin. There were three Vermeer paintings, quite remarkable when you realize that there are only 33 of his paintings in existance. There was also many Rembrandts and a da Vinci. In fact, there were thousands of great paintings, way too many to see on one visit.

On the street outside the National Gallery were all sorts of vendors selling Obama souvenirs. You want an Obama souvenir? There is everything imaginable...t shirts, sweat shirts (hoodies and non hoodies), baseball hats, cold weather skull caps, sweaters, scarfs, buttons, key chains, posters, bracelets, mouse pads, head warmers, magnets (large and small)...you name it, they have it. There seem to be two kind of vendors; the official kind, in nice lighted trailers, with both Obama souvenirs and DC souvenirs...these vendors are all Koreans and seem to be here all the time. Then there are the other vendors, who pull up in the cars or trucks, put up a card table and sell t shirts and buttons. These are all African Americans and may or may not be official. They are more fun to buy from because they have some pretty unusual stuff (the weirdest being a t shirt with a flying Obama with a Superman outfit, flying with a basketball towards a basket) and you can always bargain with them.

Our next stop was the Natural History museum. Great place! They have all sorts of full dinosaur skeletons, a great gem exhibit and the actual Hope Diamond (how appropriate is THAT??), the largest diamond in the world.

From here we took the Metro up to DuPont circle and the Phillips Museum, which I think is Amy's favorite. They have the famous Renoir here of the Boat Party, but by this time I was about Museumed out, so Amy sent me off to find a coffee shop, as we were a might peckish by this time. But there wasn't much here, except a very crowded Starbucks, so we slowly walked all the way back to the White House, then the Washington Monument and then L'Enfant Plaza, where we took the Metro back to Vienna, VA, after about 9 hours of museum looking and walking (about 8 miles, give or take). The view from the Washington Monument was spectacular and I couldn't help to think what a great country we live in, how we are able to transfer power so easily and peacefully, how our ideals and the idea of America truly is great and the envy of the world.

From our view point

click on this!



Craig did such an eloquent job of describing things. What I want to add is that, when you stay in a spot of history for three hours, it becomes your own place, your own little neighborhood. We headed for a place that was still high enough on the gentle slope on the south side of the Mall, with a little tree on it, to let us get a sense of the people around us and still be able to breathe a little and see the jumbotrons. Such a pretty sight, to see the Washington Monument, which stands on a rounded little hill like a large upside down bowl, and this hill and the valley in front of it were filled with people, up to the horizon line in all directions. Between us and them, it seemed it must be packed solidly with folks, but actually it was not, there was a tiny little avenue there to bring in the buses with the parade marchers, who were as astonished to see all of us as we were to see them, when they appeared. They waved at us and we waved at them.

Our friends Michael and April were on the north side of the memorial we think, a very short distance away, but there was no way to even easily squirm 20 feet, let alone the 1/8th mile and two concrete barriers that probably separated us from them. And no way to make cell phone contact... not hardly, although lots of people did get on and off. Not that people wouldn't have been pretty nice about our trying to do it, because until we slowly got even more packed in, they were pretty nice. We had tall people, short people, skinny people and everyone was fatter and taller than usual because they were packed in parkas, fur lined hoods and mufflers. It was cooooold!

It was also funny to be down in the pack, and have the jumbotrons showing us their scene, up on the hill with the privileged. We were The People, and they were The Show. When we first arrived, the jumbotrons were showing replays of the last part of sunday's concert, the moment of letting the bald eagles loose to fly and to perch on Lincoln's shoulder, and ended with Barrack's speech. But then, they kinda aimlessly showed the entertainment (SFO girls and boys chorus, yay, and military marches endlessly), but would cut to odd scenes of motorcades never saying whose and then back to scenes and shots of the high muckety mucks. For a long time there was no obvious focus, just random cuts from here to there with no voice cluing you in. So you would get a glimpse of someone in a suit or Di Fi or Newt Gingrich and then you'd hear the mike with the rich folks making silly comments to each other that they didn't know were being broadcast and then it would be back to motorcade scenes. The life and comfort of the rich definitely didn't reach us. And it was so funny to us in The People audience when the emcees would say, 'please, take your seats' and all of us cold standing millions would laugh and laugh. And then, 'please rise'. we were definitely on our feet! Our toes were all numb and our legs were achy and yet it wouldn't have mattered if you lost your footing or fainted as there was not enough room to sink down on the ground. you'd be held up by the group.

Meanwhile the crowd around us had so many types of folks. The one thing I really felt was that for all the black Americans who were there, this was the most special reward they could savor. For many of the rest of us, it was about the welcome regime change and welcoming a brilliant president, but for them, it was so much more and so much a pinnacle of history. To be there in this special moment with them was not a bit uncomfortable, it was a very welcoming and polite situation. Somewhat discordant was another part of our neighbors, a trio of brassy white ladies of a certain age who were commenting steadily on absolutely everything. But next to me there was a very tranquil youngish black woman all on her own, her quiet face framed by her turned up grey collar and a grey knit hat, who was just there taking it all in, meeting no one's eyes, just watching, listening, watching. I liked her the best, of all the people watching that I did. Her reserved face, with a small private smile, and the Washington memorial rising in white radiance behind her, was really nice to turn to now and then. Here she is:



In the crowd, the experience of some things, like the invocation, was very, very powerful. For despite what was to many such a controversial choice of minister, the opening prayer came across as inclusive and moving, and it went over extremely well with the crowd we were in, which was half or more African American, and when he started the Lords Prayer, nearly everyone was joining in, even people like my husband who I didn't even know knew the lords prayer. Those were the first universal sniffles that I heard. And, Aretha Franklin, singing my country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, was great. Her voice was very pure and so well known to all of us. Let freedom ring. people were very moved. I didn't think so much of her odd hat, kind of a giant silver bow tie, though many people have told me how much they did.

Reading this blog afterwards, I'm thinking about how cool it was to hear the crowd respond as different people appeared on screen. There were a lot of comments in the press later, about how it was undignified of the crowd to boo the president during this transition of power, and I agree. But it was also very interesting to recall in retrospect, how the crowd we were in recognized, and responded to various figures. When there was a glimpse of Sandra Day O'Connor, people murmured and nudged each other and pointed at her and acclaimed her. And when Clarence Thomas appeared, it seemed there was a near universal low pitched boo. Especially the black members of the audience, really did not like him.


One of my very most favorite moments was first hearing Biden be sworn in, then hearing and seeing that incredible, exquisite quartet of musicians, YoYo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and the other two, playing John Williams' variation on Simple Gifts. Watching it, one asian, one oldish white jewish man, one young black clarinetist, the woman piano player, I realized how lovely the mix was. old, young, male female, and the look of our nation as it is today. (I later learned that Anthony McGill, the clarinetist, is really is young, he is 29). It was our little nation making the most wonderful music. and one of the things I really appreciated was that during this, the crowd really hushed down. it was a quiet reverent moment. People were at least as moved by this as by Aretha, I felt. And to me it brought back thoughts of Aaron Copeland's original use of that song in Appalachian Spring, which was really a synthesis in the 1950s of so much that made our mid 20th century culture what it was.

On an outdoor screen, our president's quickly flashed smile is a great gift on a cold, cold day. I felt very lucky to be there to hear his commitment to his job and then to listen to his speech. And after hearing quotes from Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson, kind of a nice change to hear something else that harked back to the practical, so common-man-ish, his quote from the Fred Astaire movie Swing Time - Jerome Kern's song Pick Yourself Up - urging us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again.

Hope Won!

Boy, were we lucky. We caught an early train today, about a half hour earlier than we were supposed to, but nobody checked the time on our tickets. Arrived at L'Enfant Station at 8:30, walked out into the street and saw the HUUUUUUUUGE mass of folks walking to the Mall. I mean, there were a LOT of folks. No way to get over to the mall from there... Security herded us from 7th down to 14th street, as the nearer part of the Mall was already filled up. We ended up just southeast of the Washington Monument, which was already totally filled up with people. We were just on the side of the Mall, but with a fairly good view of a Jumbotron and lots of loudspeakers made it very easy to hear. So here we were at 8:45am, 3 hours before the Inauguration was to start. The temperature was in the high twenties, but there was a wind, so the windchill was probably in the teens. Not something this California boy is used to. We were all huddled together with the other thousands of folks....if you don't do well in crowds, this would not have been for you.

Later, we learned that the whole Mall was closed at 9am, probably just five or ten minutes after we squeaked through the security barriers, so the folks that arrived just after us had had to go west of the monument, and those that arrived after THEM had to stay in the streets with no TVs and no sound. I don't know how many people were there, but it had to be 2 million or more. And EVERYONE was excited and happy.

The Inauguration finally started at 11:30, after several important folks were announced, congressmen, senators, vice presidents and presidents. Cheers for Colin Powell and Teddy Kennedy and Al Gore, polite stone faces for a few folks... like Senator Lieberman, in his little orange scarf. When Bush and Cheney were announced, there were some pronounced boos and a few folks mostly young guys started singing, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good bye". Poor ol' Bush, you hafta feel kinda sorry for him (or not).

When President Elect Obama was announced, the crowd went absolutely nuts, waving their hands smiling at each other. Even so far away, we could see his beaming smile light up the Jumbotron. So there were some speeches, a great song by Aretha Franklin, the oath by the Vice President, and finally up came Obama, took the oath (which the Chief Justice flubbed up totally, what the heck was that about?) and Obama was our new President. Do I have to say how absolutely crazy the crowd of 2, 3 4, however many millions of people went? Flags waving everywhere, people crying, smiling, laughing, what an incredible scene.

At this point, we were so smushed together with the crowd that if you dropped something, no way you could pick it up. If your hands were up, like mine were to take pictures, you could barely put them down by your sides. But most everyone was polite and smiling and being nice to each other. President Obama gave his speech, then it was time to head back to the train, which would leave in an hour. It was surprisingly easy to get back to the station, only took us 1/2 hour to get there. Luckily, Veronique got tickets on this train instead of relying on the Metro, or we would still be in DC tonight.

But we arrived at Veronique's house, ate some hamburgers (no food all day, except a bagel) and watched the parade. Obama gave a shaka sign to the Punahou marching band, first President in history to give the shaka sign to anyone. Just seeing that First Family and those incredibly cute girls gave us goosebumps.

What a wonderful day it was. Amy, Veronique, Annecy, Camille and I witnessed History, a day that will be remembered not just as an American event, but as a World event. I am so happy to have been here. God Bless our new President and may we remember this day as the day that America started on the road to greatness again.

Thomas Jefferson, our man

I am proud to say that this afternoon we were in beautiful Monticello, the mountain where thomas jefferson built his home. what a genius he was, and what an interested scientist. Given his broad interests and inventiveness it's clear he would have recognized, and probably, he would have licked this global warming thing in no time. It was nice to be there, as all the visitors had obama fever, and our tour guide, a cheery older woman, was clearly reveling in her ability to welcome us and praise us for our inauguration enthusiasm. As usual with our DC events so far, about a third of visitors, maybe half, are out of state black americans. It's pretty cool to visit Thomas Jefferson's home, and of course his slave quarters and Sally Hemmings' kitchen bedroom, in the company of fellow americans who were once slaves, on martin luther king day. We have come a long way. He was embarrased at being a slave inheritor, but financially inherited his father's debts and died in worse debt due to an economic slowdown surrounding the revolutionary war. So, he was a slave owner... about five Jeffersons and their families, and about 110 slaves, lived at Monticello.

Monticello is now expensive, $19 for an adult, but still, a remarkable place. his books, his mastodon fossils, his indian relics sent by Lewis and Clark, his carvings, his inventions and best of all, the declaration of independence that is at his home. And, his solar energy respecting features of the home he designed. it was a great time. more later.

And, Craig and I learned I did make it to page 4A of USA today, today! wow, my 15 minutes! it was so much fun being interviewed, thanks very much to Ms Moore

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-01-18-lincoln_N.htm