Pre-Dawn Rant

(I have no idea why, but I was wide awake at 5:30 this morning, and for some reason had this rant on my mind. I thought writing it down might help me get back to sleep; it didn’t, but I present it here, nevertheless, with only light editing.)

One of the things that drove me a little nuts during a large chunk of the Bush administration was the seemingly-constant refrain from the right that vocally disagreeing with the president during a time of war was inappropriate to the point of bordering on treason. Now, of course, there is a different person in the White House, but we’re still at war, and yet many of those same people are complaining as if their lives depend on it. To them, I have two things to say:

1. It doesn’t feel like treason, does it? It feels like you’re exercising a very important constitutional right, doesn’t it? Yeah. I thought so.

2. Keep it up. I don’t agree with you, and oftentimes think you’re plain-ass crazy, but we were right about the dissent thing. It is important, it is your right, and it is your duty.

And now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I have just one thing to add:

All this squawking about the President’s planned address to students? It’s just, well, childish. This is a pep talk, not a policy speech; the President of the United States is merely taking time out of his busy schedule to tell kids that education has value and that staying in school is important. This is, as far as I know, pretty much the same message most parents try to send, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. Hearing it from as many people as possible, including the President — the holder of an office they should respect, even when they (or you) don’t like the person in it — can’t hurt. It might, in fact, help.

“A Right Inestimable”

On my way to the airport yesterday, I happened to hear NPR’s “Morning Edition” team do their annual dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence. At the risk of sounding hopelessly corny, this part kinda makes me mist up a little:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It’s the most famous bit, of course, and Thomas Jefferson at his most stirring. I’ll admit that I usually zone out during the list of grievances part, but cruising up the BW Parkway allowed me time to listen. One particular item caught my attention:

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

And yet, 233 years later, the residents of the capital city of the nation formed by this declaration still have no representation, which is — to emphasize Jefferson’s words — “formidable to tyrants only.

Now, I don’t consider our goverment to be tyrants. Idiots, sometimes, to be sure, and misguided on occasion, but not tyrants. So, if you have a moment on this Independence Day, take a moment to remind your Representatives and Senators that there are 500,000 residents of the District of Columbia who are still waiting for “a right inestimable to [us].”

Visit www.dcvote.org for more information.

Oh, and Happy Independence Day!

The Hope-ocalypse

So… I know that I’m a week late in posting this, but initially, I was plain-ass exhausted, and since getting caught up on my rest, I’ve been struggling with what to say that hasn’t already been said. It became clear almost immediately that the media was covering inauguration weekend in minute detail, and, really, it was pretty much what it looked like on television — cold and crowded, patriotic and inspirational. It has made blogging about it seem fairly pointless, until I decided to just give up on my original plan to go over what I did point by point. Instead, I’m just going to offer some random recollections, impressions, and experiences.

In no particular order:

» The crowds, both on Sunday and Tuesday, were amazingly polite, considerate, and calm. Space was at a premium, but there was (at least where I was) surprisingly little of the surging and crushing that I’ve experienced at concerts and sporting events. There was also no fighting or harsh words — in fact, there appeared to be no frayed tempers at all. The one time my fellow concert-watchers and I were jostled out of position by a gaggle of fur-clad ladies, all we managed was an eye-roll, grin, and shrug.

» It turns out that, when one is standing outside for four or five hours, 40 degrees does not, ultimately, feel appreciably warmer than 25 degrees. It’s just freaking cold. It’s because of the not-moving, though, much more than the temperature. As soon as any kind of walking came into play, we warmed up immediately.

» I think unofficial inaugural balls are the way to go. As far as I’ve been told, the official ones involve no food, long lines for any sort of beverage, little-to-no dancing by guests, and a lot of waiting for the President and First Lady to arrive. (I’ve not been to one, so can’t vouch for the veracity of that characterization, though I’ve heard it from more than one person.) The Hill Ball, on the other hand, didn’t have a presidential visit, but it was a ton of fun — with plenty of snacks and drinks, and a great swing band so guests could dance. Oh… it also had an Obama cardboard cutout — the Faux-bama, as I’ve come to call it — so we could have inauguration-appropriate photo ops.

» Being part of the people on the Mall singing along to “This Land is Your Land” and “America the Beautiful” was more patriotic, emotional and awe-inspiring than it looked on HBO.

» The flag-waving during the inauguration, on the other hand, was way cooler on tv.

» I narrowly avoided a trip into the “purple tunnel of doom” as Julia, Michael, and I almost went that way to circumvent the crowd at (I think) the silver ticket gate. We ended up finding another way around the bottleneck, and I am tremendously grateful. I am not especially claustrophobic, but I think being stuck in a traffic tunnel for hours would have changed that. We did, however, venture underground a bit farther on, when we cut through the passages beneath the Sackler Gallery and through the International Gallery, to come out the front door of the Freer Gallery — right on the Mall, next to the Smithsonian Castle. This is how we ended up in our good spot by the Natural History Museum, rather than back by the Washington Monument with all the other locals who opted not to get there at 7:00 a.m.

» My fellow-heathen friends and I did a little jump for joy when President Obama mentioned “nonbelievers” in his listing of the religious persuasions of the American people. I sincerely can’t recall a time when those of us on the low end of the belief-system scale got such prominent recognition. It’s hard to express why this was so meaningful, other than to say that, in an era where the terms “people of faith” and “faith-based initiatives” have often been used as shorthand for ideal American-ness, it was nice to hear that my conflicted feelings about a higher power might no longer be used to make me feel like a bad citizen.

» I had no idea that trying to stay warm was so unbelievably tiring. I was more worn out at the end of the weekend than at any time I can recall. I also had an exceedingly chapped face, despite the balaclava. Between the exhaustion and skin damage, I actually looked every bit of my almost-38 years for most of last week. It was not, at all, cool.

» I want to know why Garth Brooks got to sing more songs than Bruce Springsteen, who is (obviously) way, way better.

» Dropping a glove liner in a crowd of 1.8 million means it’s gone forever — instantly. This is especially frustrating when it happens early in the day, and is one half of a pair of brand-new, $35, thinsulate liners that fit my tiny hands perfectly.

» We came upon a “Mission Accomplished” banner behind the Freer Gallery when we were leaving, with the “Os” replaced with the Obama logo (that red, white, and blue sunbursty-looking thing). Perhaps not the most gracious of signs to bring, but we found it hilarious, and posed for pictures with it.

And, speaking of photos (see my nice segue there?) I’ve pasted in my Flickr slideshow below. I can’t get it to show the captions, though, so if you’re inclined to see them, click on the slideshow to display the links and then click on “Your Inauguration Set” at the top of the slideshow. That should take you into Flickr, where you can click through the photos individually.

Update: Here’s a direct link for the slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetpeasarah/sets/72157612843210166/show/. I forget that embeddable objects can be pretty tetchy about browser compatibility. If you use this link, the captions can be displayed by using the “show info” link in the upper right.