Hey Hey….goodbye
(continued)
In making my way from teh Fairchild building, (south and west of the Capitol) to the command van in lot 575 (also south and west of the Capitol) I was compelled to travel north and east. This literally meant travelling from South Capitol Street Southwest to 2nd and B St Northeast before I could move across to 3rd St NW and then down to Constitution Avenue. The entire west side was impassible for most of the day- which also hindered emergency vehicles (like ambulances) from getting where they needed to be.
After checking on the command van systems I decided to walk south, across the west front, just to see what I could see. I was at peace circle (near the reflecting pool) when President George W. Bush was introduced. THe animosity towards that man was stunning. The crowd booed him and then began to sing “hey hey, goodbye.” After being awake for about 31 hours it seemed pretty funny to me, but in hindsight I would say it was not well done. If the tone of this administration is to be one of reconciliation, and an end to partisanship, then this act was not indicative of that end.
I got to stand on the west front, during the swearing in of the vice president and the president. I thought I would be overwhelmed or excited or something- but there really wan’t a big change for me. Perhaps it’s because I’m cynical, when it comes to politics, and just don’t think that there will be much true difference between an Obama administration and the preceding one. Don’t misunderestimate me (heh), I think it was past time for Mr. Bush and his gang of ideologue criminals to go. I just think that Mr. Obama is going to end up “trying to move furniture that has been nailed to the floor” by the bad decisions of Mr. Bush.
I went back to the Fairchild building without any additional fanfare or whooraw. I skipped the parade as I had already spent more than enough time in the cold, in my humble opinion.
After the parade we were released to go home (at this point I had been up and moving for more than thirty four hours). I did my best imitation of a George Romero zombie and shuffled off to the metro station to go home. It was NUTS! There was a HUGE line of people waiting along D street and C St between 1st and South Capitol St SW. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to simply bypass the crowd, I took my place in line. After about ten minutes a significant body of people was in back of me, as well as in front, and I could overhear some of their conversations. Most of these conversations troubled me, greatly, as they were indicative of a level of zealotry (for Obama) which does not bode well for the country. The upshot of many of these conversations was that “everything is now fantastically better and we don’t have to worry anymore- Obama is in charge.” Sorry,but in my humble opinion, it doesn’t work that way.
Despite the fact that President George W. Bush was, in my opinion, the worst president since Herbert Hoover- he was NOT responsible for all the ills plaguing our country. The current economic crisis has been developing over the better part of the last fifty years, and BOTH sides have had a hand in its creation. The mere inauguration of Barack Obama, as president, does not mean that we need not worry, neither does it excuse us from making the hard choices that must inevitably come in the days ahead. What it does mean is that we have an opportunity to correct the bad policies and decisions created by the Bush ideologues. It would be a mistake, however, to confuse opportunity with a miracle cure. That type of error opens the door to the ascendency of the radical left, when what the country needs is to move back to the center.
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