Downtown DC is battening its hatches. Not for the expected snow, although we are rumored to be facing 3-5 inches tonight, but for something much worse – the Inauguration.
Inaugurations are always a big deal, shutting down the Federal city not only in terms of traffic and security issues, but also psychologically. For some reason, closing streets, businesses, and government offices has a big effect on the mood here. It’s not entirely festive; although there’s definitely celebration, a significant percentage of people one meets are varying degrees of disgruntled because their side isn’t being inaugurated, and everyone finds something sobering about barricades and bomb-sniffing dogs on patrol.
Last time was The Big One – I don’t know if this city will ever see anything like that one again. Not only historic, the event meant so much to so many residents, people really took it personally. The energy in town was really something. My sister, who is politically connected, got some really close-in tickets for us – we could actually see the tiny dot that was the President’s head! Strangers talked to each other! We had a fantastic time.
This one is much more typical, if not mundane, but it’s a double whammy – because the 20th falls on a Sunday, they’re doing it again on Monday, the 21st. I don’t understand the rationale behind that – the government offices in DC close for EVERY Inauguration, but so it’s not like moving it to Monday because it’s a workday, and this Monday is already Martin Luther King’s birthday and the government is closed ANYWAY. Is there some constituency who wants to attend THIS Inaugural, keeps Sunday reserved for the Sabbath, but doesn’t care about Martin Luther King?
This past weekend the fundamental infrastructure was put in place. I’m talking about infrastructure to support one’s fundament – portable toilets! Long rows of them linked together, giving a vague impression of some massive industrial process, have been pre-positioned on the sidewalks in front of my office and other buildings around here. Concrete jersey wall at selected corners followed this week. Yesterday, more ominously, long sections of steel crowd-control barriers were unloaded and stacked on the sidewalks, and today they’re erected to prevent access to storefronts and office buildings – currently with sections removed so that I can get in to work. These are not the waist-high aluminum “bicycle rack” style barricades one sees at regular events – these are eight-foot-tall black panels of mesh considerably tighter than anchor chain fencing, strongly set on broad metal feet to resist tipping, and look like they could ward off angry European soccer hooligans. They add a frankly totalitarian atmosphere to the proceedings; maybe later someone will tie some limp red, white, and blue bunting in them in a misguided attempt to liven them up, and inadvertently create an ironic political image.
The snipers come later, just before the marching bands.
I have Monday off – for the Inauguration and/or King Day – and I’m not inclined to try to cram into town for this one, unlike the last one. But Inaugurations, however old-hat they may become, even second-term ones, are supposed to be about beginnings. That’s where the word comes from – inaugurate, “to begin.” Jaded as I am, I can’t help but peer through the steel barriers, over the cement roadblocks, past the armed men, and look for the possibility of something new and better amid the fluttering red, white and blue.
