I've attended two presidential inaugurals -- Jimmy Carter's in 1977 and Bill Clinton's in 1993 -- so I decided not to battle the crowds to attend Barack Obama's inaugural in 2009. Been there, done that, I thought, though there was certainly some very special historical significance to the Obama inaugural: record-breaking crowds of nearly two million people with a shared purpose and shared agenda that give a greater sense than perhaps ever before that this could be a transformational moment and real, fundamental change is possible.
Photographers and videographers have captured the event better than wordsmiths. I'm particularly impressed by this 360-degree panorama from the National Mall produced by my friend Tom Lassiter of Greensboro, and by this high resolution composite of dozens of photos by Gigipan. WashingtonPost.com produced a moving three-part video on the swearing in, the parade, and the celebrations.
Attending an inaugural gives you such a strong sense of what it means to be an American, and the sense that you are sharing a moment in national history with your fellow citizens. You feel a strong kinship with strangers on the street. You feel that America is turning a page in history, starting anew with fresh leadership, and you're part of the experience.
As a young reporter for The Fayetteville Times in 1977, I volunteered to cover the Carter inaugural. Jimmy Carter was heralded as a symbol of the New South, a proponent of integration and friend of Martin Luther King Sr. His inauguration represented the South's return to the union. The piece I wrote pretty well sums up what it's like to be on the street at an inaugural celebration. I imagine it will resonate with those who attended the Obama inaugural.
Column by Jim Buie for The Fayetteville Times, Jan. 24, 1977: My feet are still sore from walking some 10 miles in the snow.
My lips are chapped from exposure to a biting wind.
My nose is running from the cold I picked up after spending some 16 hours in below freezing temperatures.
Still, I wouldn't give anything for the experience -- an experience that transcends personal discomfort, political ideology or journalistic objectivity.
Along with 350,000 other Americans, I sojourned to Washington for the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter.
I have never felt more like an American. From eight a.m. last Thursday morning until well after midnight when the last inaugural ball shut down, a tight thread wound through the entire city, connecting each person with the next in a common bond of sharing and caring.
In the spring of 1976, when I first heard Jimmy Carter make that little speech about wanting a government as "good, decent, compassionate and filled with love as are the American people," I was very skeptical. Meaningless words from an ambitious politician, I thought.
But I don't see how anyone could have been a part of that mass of bouyant faces without feeling that the American people do ineed have a special warmth about them.
I saw it in the good-natured games between the security officers charged with crowd control and the rather over-eager crowd determined to get close to Carter, regardless of the barricades.
"Hey, you guys, you can't move any closer," came the gentle admonition of one guard. "You'll block the Vice President's limosine."
A grandmotherly lady who had just crossed over the security rope smiled and patted the officer on the shoulder. "Now honey," she said quietly. "This is 'the people's inaugural.' Jimmy wouldn't want us to be unhappy."
The officer melted.
I saw it in the many expressions of concern when one man suffered a stroke from the cold in front of the Senate during Carter's address. Several total strangers sacrificed their chance to watch history in the making to help the man to the nearest ambulance.
There were many other incidents during the day that will stick in my mind for a long time to come. Among them:
- In the reception sponsored by Sen. Robert Morgan just before the swearing-in ceremony, I ran into an old friend, Linda Carpenter of Southern Pines. She looked stunned and her right hand was limp. "Linda, what's wrong?" I asked. "You won't believe it," she said breathlessly. "I just shook hands with Ted Kennedy."
- Linda was not alone in her awe of political celebrities. A friend from New York, who prides himself on his liberalism, shook hands with (former segregationist) Gov. George Wallace and told him he hoped he'd run for national office again. "I couldn't think of anything else to say to him," he confessed afterwards.
- Some George Washington University students stood outside one of the pre-inaugural parties gawking at the celebrities. One shouted "Baba WaWa! Baba WaWa!" at ABC anchor Barbara Walters. "When are you going to learn to pronounce your 'R's," Ms. Walters responded good-naturedly, catching the students off-guard.
Sadly, the ebullience of the Carter inaugural faded. Carter's presidency was widely perceived as hapless and beleaguered -- overwhelmed by the rapid rise in energy prices, double-digit inflation, double digit unemployment, the Iranian hostage crisis, a deeply divided Democratic Party and his seeming inability to do much about the problems Americans faced. Let us pray that is not the fate of the Obama presidency.
Drill Deeper:
- Jimmy Carter in 2009 reflects on his 1977 inauguration.
- FLICKR photos of Carter's Inauguration.
- Is this a transformational moment for America?
- Tom Lassiter's 360-degree panorama from the National Mall at Obama's Inaugural
- WashingtonPost.com's moving three-part video
