Solidarity, peacefulness emanate from D.C. crowds

Washington, D.C. – Sunday officially kicked off inauguration week. And although the crowds only accounted for a fraction of the numbers that are expected to pour into D.C. by Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, the scene in downtown D.C. was something like an MSU tailgate, times 100.

The interesting thing about the crowd, which usually isn’t the case at Spartan tailgates, was the solidarity and peacefulness.

Typically, from my experience, crowds at positive events tend to be good-natured until the event is over. At that point, it’s every man for himself. Tempers flare and pushing, shoving and cursing ensue as people struggle to get the hell out of there.

Not today.

Following the Opening Ceremony, the massive swarm of people (which, by the way, must be a record for the largest number of people in the National Mall, and it’s not even the real Inauguration Day) were high-fiving, chanting, fist-pumping, elbow-bumping, hooting and hollering. There wasn’t a sad face in sight that didn’t belong to a two-year-old who was overdue for a nap.

Unlike the national conventions, election night, and every other important night prior to the election – there was no suspense. During the conventions, there was the uncertainty of nominating a candidate. On election night, America was holding its breath anticipating which candidate would win the election. But today, there is nothing but celebration, and it showed in the smiles on peoples’ faces.

On a side note, while waiting to meet up with a contact who I was supposed to accompany to the celebration, I met a friendly National Guard member who not only granted me access to the restricted bathroom of the Department of Interior building, but also allowed me to warm up in her military Jeep and munch on Sugar Babies while I waited for my contact to arrive.

I never envisioned myself sitting in the back of a military vehicle of my own free will. Not only did it happen, but I met some pretty interesting individuals in the process.

It turned out that the soldier who came to my rescue while I was shivering and “holding it” also was a full-time pharmacy student. She balanced her 12-hour work day directing traffic with a full college course-load. Because of her job with the National Guard, she had missed the final exam for some of her classes last semester. Now, she was working the inauguration, trying to catch up on the classes she would miss because of the inauguration, and studying for missed exams from last semester. All-the-while, she made time to stop a passing street vendor and buy a Barack Obama poster to commemorate the day.

“It’s the one thing I’m going to want to remember about today,” she told me with an exhausted look on her face, before digging out a textbook and proceeded to study during a moment of downtime.