The WRAL News team was in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Obama. In addition to regular coverage on WRAL-TV, they blogged about the crowds, sights and sounds during this historic event.
I don’t know if I have yet to fully comprehend how I will look back on the trip to Washington, D.C. ten or twenty years from now.
In my opinion, the election of Barack Obama is the biggest news story of the 21st century. September 11th is a close second. Some may argue with that.
To be down at the mall for this event is something none of us will ever forget.
Having grown up in the Washington, D.C. area I’m used to largess, and grand events. None comes close to this in scale. I tell people I’ve seen a million people down on the mall for events…this was several times that.
One of the most impressive aspects of the inauguration was the fact that there were at least two million people there yet no arrests were reported! Perhaps it was the feeling of brother and sisterhood, a feeling of hope for America and the world, or the unprecedented number of police and security personnel?
There WAS animosity on the...
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By Alan Mask, M.D.
No 767 jetliner. No marching band or uniformed cheerleaders. Just two busloads of people destined to go to Washington, D.C., to welcome a new president. We had a hunger for change. We came from different backgrounds but had a unity of purpose that made the trip a once in a lifetime event.
Our sojourn to Washington reminded me of Spike Lee's 1996 epic "Get On The Bus." It traced the three day journey of of a group of men heading from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for the Million Man March. On our bus, though, there was no arguing. We shared food, sang songs, even watched reruns of Andy Griffin on the overhead monitors. Our Caucasian bus driver had 57 years of driving experience and must have realized how much religion meant to this mostly African-American crowd when he gave the time and date of his becoming a Christian in 1972.
Traveling by bus on the North Carolina Obama Inaugural "Dream to the Promise" gave an added dimension to the celebration...
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My cousin and I couldn't decide if we wanted to watch the inauguration from National Mall or from the parade route, so we did some research. The D.C. police had issued a statement deterring visitors from getting to the mall before 4 a.m. Four in the morning? Here we were thinking we'd arrive sometime around 8. Now it sounded like we would have to set up camp around 6, a good five hours before any of the activity started. All in 20-degree weather, without food or drink and likely two miles or more away from the Capitol.
We settled on the parade route. Until we read the police report for that one: no food or drink, aside from certain granola bars, which could still possibly be confiscated, and they would be turning people away after the first 350,000. And all of this to watch a limousine drive by.
You know what, my cousin has heat and a TV in his apartment. And plenty of food. So we settled on that.
We woke up around 10 and flipped on the news, which had already...
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One word can describe Washington, D.C. today: Energy. Nervous energy, positive energy, emotional energy. If you can think of any kind of energy that can be felt by a human, it was present at the inauguration. People were crying, jumping up and down, hugging each other, and chanting. And I am sure that some people were not excited to see Barack Obama place his hand on the Lincoln Bible and take the oath. But one thing is certain; The majority of the 1.4 million people in the crowd and the millions and millions of people watching around the world were full of positive energy at seeing the first African American president elected in the United States and the first glimmer of hope and change the country has seen in a long time.
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What a scene. What a sight. Everywhere you turn, cold but happy faces, cheerful people, more American flags than I have seen in a long time in one location.
Millions waiting in joyful anticipation on a day that is so very cold. Hundreds of thousands came to the Mall last night and never left. How they survived the wind chill of 9 degrees is beyond my comprehension.
Oh yes, we've seen a few notables. We ran right into Mariah Carey and Arnold, the governor of California – not together, of course. The celeb sightings are what they are.
The BEST sightings? Young children on the shoulders of their parents, waving small American flags.
What a day.
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