The Morning on the Mall – President Obama’s Inauguration

Greeted by the cold morning air of Tuesday morning, January 20th, 2009, at roughly 7:30 am, I embarked from the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington DC, headed south on Connecticut Avenue on my way to a ceremony whose buildup I can't remember the likes of in my twenty plus years of living in the DC region. Surrounded by a stream of innumerous other souls, and stomping over countless hand-warmer wrappers as we went, we waded through the winter air in the same direction, similarly bundled in layers upon layers upon layers.

With no real guidance but the course of the crowd to usher us further down the road, that would later closer resemble a whirlpool than watercourse, the light grew with the rising sun that would eventually dissolve the gray sky to an expansive blue. And finally breaking from the buildings, the sun was slightly visible behind the still far off Washington Monument across the stretches of crowd already gathered in the non-ticketed area of the National Mall, waiting for the swearing of our new President.

At unplanned choke-points across the Mall's entrances, the people pushing forward for position had already formed seemingly unsurmountable obstacles to order. This of course was greeted with random patches of open area, still very far from the Reflecting Pool and usually where there was no clear view of a jumbotron was available.

For a while, due to the density of the crowd, I was barely able to move, let alone hold up my camera. So from roughly 14th Street to 4th I have no photodocumentation. But I can assure you I was there -- along with a million of my closest friends and the sound of Sunday's concert on the Mall playing on the jumbotrons and echoing across the congregation.

Finally near 4th, where my tickets were to supposed to get me into the Silver Area, the unguided swirling had come to full force. There may have been signs to direct the masses at some point, but no one could see them and no one in the stagnant swarm made much progress. But somehow we made it through -- cold, crowded, but still enthused and able to find room in the center of the Mall just behind 3rd Street.

The spot even had a side shot of a jumbotron, and if you saw any overheads of the day you saw the crowds cramming to get a glimpse at them across the entire expanse of the Mall. Finally finding my spot, the screens started showing the entrance of the entourage on the stage before us. Cheers for P. Diddy, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Beyonce, Joe Biden and others were humorously met with jeers for Lieberman and the like (meanwhile I was mainly stomping my feet to try and keep them from freezing stiff). The funniest of all, after the entry of the current and future Vice President, was the bated breath of the crowd waiting to boo the outgoing VP. His entry in a wheelchair seemed to rob them of their jeers and a universal unletting of lungs was a sad deflating.

Upon the completion of the all the arrivals -- Featuring mass boos for President Bush and crazy cheers for the President-Elect (even these somewhat humorously subtitled on the jumbotrons) -- the Mall hushed for the opening remarks of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Following, the invocation by Dr. Rick Warren concluded with the crowd combined in quietly reciting the Lord's Prayer and Aretha Franklen's amazing voice singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

The crowd continued its cheers through the swearing in of Vice President Joe Biden, the awe inspiring classical quartet and finally, the swearing in of President Barack Obama. With the President taking the stage, everyone stared intently at the massive screens -- some shaking in the cold, others in emotion, but all braced and breathing in the shared sentiment of the moment when the new President began his inaugural speech. Breaking for applause here and there, President Obama captivated the still cold crowd whose attention was transfixed to the unprecedented address of the first African-American President, which finished with the words below and was met with the enthusiasm of a congregation that had not been standing in the winter weather for hours.

"America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."

I won't end with talking about the ordeal it was trying to leave, but I will conclude with gratitude to say the three words -- I was there. Organized it was not, nor was there warm weather, but the moment was not worth missing when millions braved the elements and logistics to be a part of a overwhelming joint experience that an never be replicated.

And now here's a dorky picture of me standing on the Mall: