Your Head Trucker has been glued to the computer screen since 10:30 this morning, by turns praying, cheering, and bawling like a kid. Thank God all went well in Washington, despite some minor stumbles and a couple of Senators falling out; but at the end of the day reports are that they are both doing okay. Security in Washington worked well: 8,000 cops, 10,000 troops, 1,000 FBI agents ensured the safety of events, and last I heard there had been no arrests, out of the 2 million (!) people who gathered on the mall and along the parade route.
Oh, the parade. I did okay through the music, the swearing-in, the inaugural address. But I just lost it when the parade started, and kept losing it for the three hours it took 13,000 participants to march past the reviewing stand. In the continuous flow of every color of banner and uniform, every kind of music, every state and race and ethnic group - and yes even THE GAYS - I saw the wonderful, marvelous, fabulous, multicolored, multiform landscape of America: homeland to all, a great and bountiful land where everyone has a place at the table, everyone gets a turn at bat, everybody gets to dance.
That's what it's all about: we the people. All the people.
This is my country: America the beautiful, land that I love. United again under a President who represents and values all of us. And so all afternoon I wept with joy and delight, so proud of my country once more.
But I am old-fashioned that way.
Well here are my pictures from the inaugural; screen shots in more or less the order they occurred. Thought I'd burn my computer out trying to watch the live feed and save the pics all at the same time, but somehow I managed not to blow a fuse here. Hope those of you who live abroad or for some reason couldn't watch the parade enjoy them.
Wish I could have recorded all the music to go with them, but I'm not that techy. This is just the first installment, more coming as I can work them into groups and post them here.
The crowd went wild when the Obamas got out of the car and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, and who can blame them? I would have too.
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