Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302170018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETHANY WEAVER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE INAUGURATION, FROM 2 VIEWPOINTS
ON THE morning of Bill Clinton's inauguration, Washington swelled with excitement. But the crowds, relaxed and happy, also had a kind of calmness about them. It was more like a long-awaited family reunion; everyone was laughing, and almost hugging each other as the numbers increased and people were pushed closer to the person beside them.As a welcome to the nation's capital, senators offered constituents a place to eat and get warm throughout the day. Conference rooms full of doughnuts and percolating coffee were inviting after the chilly walk from Union Station to the Capitol. In the office of Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., strangers talked to other strangers and staff members like they were old friends. We discussed where everyone's tickets had them standing. Even in this Republican's quarters, people were proud to say they had voted for Clinton.
Blue-ticket holders had decent views compared to the masses down by the Washington Monument, but fairly worthless ones compared to those in the bleachers that seemed to block everyone's view. Clinton was visible, though, and was clearly the guy in the black suit on the podium above the blue and white star-patterned banner, at the end of the bleachers, just beyond the lady in the fluorescent pink hat.
People discussed the fact that sitting at home in front of a television would have been more visually fulfilling and easier on the neck muscles. But their loud applause when the arrival of the president and president-elect were announced, and the voices everywhere that kept repeating "this is so cool," said that they were glad to be there. We all knew we were part of something historic.
There were vendors selling buttons, flags, posters and T-shirts on streets just around the corner from where Corretta Scott King, and Nelson Mandela waited for their respective cars. This mixture of street festival and world-summit atmospheres was felt everywhere. It involved the public as Clinton in his speech urged them to be involved, and as Maya Angelou involved them through her poem about a rock, a river and a tree.
When the ceremonies ended, masses of people came down from the trees, stepped over rocks, and became a river curving through the streets of the city. The crowds waved and yelled in unison, "bye George" as Bush's helicopter flew overhead.
Bethany Weaver is an English major at Hollins College.