The BEHS Eagle Times
Bonny Eagle High School
  • Live Update
  • The Paper
    • About & Contact
    • Staff Listing
    • Join Us
    • Website Survey
  • Features
    • Exchange students holiday traditions 2021
    • New teachers 2021
    • Cookies for charity
    • Stained glass artwork
    • Mrs. Maxwell has retired
    • The show must go on despite the pandemic
    • Exchange program ends abruptly due to Covid-19
    • Halloween Movie favorites
    • Ms. Maguire earns her award
    • Tributes to Mr. Clark
    • Mr. Johnson made presence known
    • Tik Tokker
    • Runaway chicken
    • Breakfast with Santa 2018
    • Health tips
    • Exchange Students 2019
    • Sweet senior memories 2018
    • Food Truck contest 2018
    • Juuls are for tools!
    • Herstory is a popular class
    • Chinese spoken here!
    • Scholastic Award winners!
    • Cooking with the Scots
    • Mrs. Napolitano goes to China
    • Halloween storm causes school closure
    • BERT 133 2018
    • Pep Rally 2017
    • Drama Club Championship
    • Ms. B-K's New Baby
    • Vandal Apologizes
    • Pronoun Awareness
    • Battle of the Sixes
    • Science Island Success
  • Profiles
    • BEHS custodians
    • Mr. Applestein is our new principal
    • The journey from BEHS to News Center 6
    • Ben Steeves: a very "cool" artist and athlete
    • New Teachers (2016)
    • New athletic trainer
    • Cori Simmons
    • Desiree Wright
  • Opinion
    • Clown in a Cornfield
    • New ghostbusters film
    • Should you get the vaccine?
    • 2021 NCAA predictions
    • America's Most Wanted is Back!
    • Death of the thinking student
    • Laptop curfew
    • Fantastic Beasts #2
    • Marching for our Lives
    • Common Core Kills Creativity
    • STEM Scam?
    • World of Harry Potter lives on in Fantastic Beasts
    • Student vandals express regrets
    • Trump candidacy rallies some, baffles others
    • Pumpkin Spice
    • Lady Gaga documentary
    • Die Geborgenheit
    • Christmas Movies
  • Satire
    • Yoga Pants
    • Wellness Day
    • The Locker Incident
    • Chair Abuse
  • Sports
    • Delaney Hesler caps off career
    • Football returns in 2021
    • Emily Bartash
    • Coach Burleson honored for commitment to cross-country
    • Winter sports are underway
    • Zach Maturo honored
    • Scots win state football championship in 2019
    • Boys quest for state championship falls just short
    • Spring coaches record message
    • Winter athletes win awards
    • Girls Cross Country wins gold
    • Success breeds interest in BEHS wrestling
    • Football 2017 wrapup
    • Unified BBall 2018 photos
    • Hoops for a Cause
    • Football Championship
    • Unified Basketball
    • Girls Cross-Country (2016)
  • Photography
    • Alice in Wonderland 2019
    • Congrats to 2019 grads
    • BE IDOL 2019
    • Unified team 2019
    • Christmas Assembly 2018
    • The Tempest slideshow
    • Humbletown story and photos
    • Addams Family musical 2017
    • Winter assembly 2017
    • Special Olympics 2017
    • Faculty Game
    • Anything Goes
    • BEHS Unified Team
    • Breakfast With Santa
    • Homecoming (2016)
  • Archive
    • Photo Archive >
      • Breakfast with Santa 2019
      • Thoughts about Class of 2017
      • Pros put on a show at BEHS
      • Junior Prom (2015)
      • Big Blonde and Beautiful
      • Stage Door (Play)
      • Pep Rally (2015)
      • The Green Light
      • Unique Thanksgiving Foods [We Ask BE]
      • "Our Town"
      • Holiday Traditions
      • One-Act Play (2015)
      • Homecoming (2015)
      • Graduation (2015)
      • Midsummer Night's (Play)
      • Holiday Assembly (2012)
      • Holiday Assembly (2013)
      • Holiday Assembly (2014)
    • News >
      • 2020 mock election results
      • Regan McCleary
    • Feature Archive >
      • Student vandals close school
      • Partners and Mothers Both
      • Academy Awards
      • Parent Teachers
      • Teen Mom at BEHS
      • The "Kindness Guy"
      • BEHS Runs on Dunkin
      • Calling Snow-Days
      • Chelyabinsk Meteor
    • Profile Archive >
      • Senior Profiles 2020
      • Math teacher retires
      • Mrs. Templeton-Bush
      • Natalie Bushey:Making the most of a high school career
      • Troy Bogdahn
      • Zach Chase
      • Paul Coughlin
      • Exchange Students 2015
      • Students of the Month
      • Sarah Violette
      • Paul Penna
    • Opinion Archive >
      • Beauty and the Beast
      • Almost Maine (Review)
      • Selma (Review)
      • The Hobbit (Review)
      • Season's Greetings
      • Letters to WCSH-6
    • Satire Archive >
      • Graduation speech 2017
    • Sports Archive >
      • Hall of Fame Additions
      • Unified Basketball 2017
      • Nowhere to Run
      • Women's Ice Hockey at BEHS
      • Girls Cross-Country (2012)
      • Mr. Hodsdon
      • Girls Cross-Country (2015)
      • Dustin Cole and the Basketball Team
      • Lyndie Libby Returns
      • BEHS Nerf Hunger Games
      • Football Best In State
      • Cheers from the Heart

A place in the crowd and in history

1/25/2013

1 Comment

 
PictureOur view from the mall for the 57th Inauguration of Barack Obama.

Picture
The Capitol in the early morning light, as we made our way to the security checkpoints.
Picture
The first glimpse of the presdient on the Jumbotron brought cheers and shouts of "Obama, Obama."
         We started our day at 6:30 a.m., walking about two miles up Massachusetts Avenue, past Union Station to Capitol Hill. There were already dozens of cars on the streets and people lined up to get into Dubliners, where "Morning Joe" would be broadcasting live that morning, beginning at 8.
          Military police and soldiers standing beside their armored jeeps guarded every side street leading down to the mall. They were friendly, helpful, and probably cold, as the temperatures hovered in the high 20s until the sun came up. Once behind the Capitol, we joined throngs of people clasping green-bordered tickets as we circled the perimeter of the Capitol grounds, snaking around and finally through the Botanical Gardens to our checkpoint.
     By 8 am we were through the big white tented security area (where no one even asked to see our tickets). They were much more concerned about our electronics, asking us to please turn them all on and place them on the table to be inspected.
     Once through security, we were out in the open with the Capitol dome off in the distance. By this time, our section of the mall was about two thirds full. We thought about standing next to a fir tree near the back of the section for the straightest, full-on view, but opted to go right and stand on a mound of cedar chips for our 3-hour wait for the swearing in.
      There, we caught glimpses of the podium through the trees. It felt like being in the upper deck of a stadium during a rock concert -- you needed binoculars to see who was doing what on stage, so you relied mostly on the Jumbotron for close-up views. We were surrounded by wonderful folks from Ohio, Oregon, New York and several Washington D.C natives. We did group stretches as we waited. Some people carved out a little space on the ground to sit and play cards. My sister made an ill-advised trip to the porta potty, where people were pressed up against the doors, making it impossible to pry one open. She texted me that she couldn't find her way back to where I was standing, so I waved my hat in the air until I saw her come into sight.
       People cheered when Democratic celebrities like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Jimmy Carter, and Supreme Court justice Sonya Sodemeyer appeared on the big screen. People booed lustily when Republican vice presidential candidate  Paul Ryan showed up on the jumbotron. It felt like Woodstock without the music - a gathering of all those who'd volunteered, donated, hoped, or just simply voted for "four more years."
       What made our position most fortuitous though was being far away from that fir tree we'd considered standing near. A crazy anti-abortion activist in a bright orange jacket climbed up to a precariously swaying branch beyond the reach of police and ranted almost non-stop during the 90 minute ceremony, as he waved a sign accusing Obama of being a baby killer. He didn't even stop during the invocation, which you'd expect a God-fearing man to do. He did stop to listen to Beyonce's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner though. (Which was terrific and not lip-synched, as some have suggested).
        Barack Obama's 19-minute speech stirred his supporters, as it called for continuing the work of our forefathers and urged inclusiveness. "We were made for this time," he said.
      The speech was followed by Maine poet Richard Blanco's reciting of an original poem. The crowd didn't seem to  connect with his message, but if you read it online, you'll see how appropriate his words were.
         By 1 p.m. the festivities had ended. We waited in line almost as long to get off the grounds of the Capitol as we'd waited to get onto them. We headed for our next stop: the parade route, for a glimpse of the president and Michelle Obama as they went past the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue."

Picture
Anti-abortion protester heads for a precarious perch as police try to talk him down. Click on the photo to read a story about the guy.
From where we stood, we couldn't tell if Beyonce was lip-synching. But this story asserts that there's no way she could have been. It was a stirring rendition either way!
1 Comment
John Huron link
12/31/2020 05:50:50 am

Thanks for wrriting this

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Ms. Lannin, the advisor to the Eagle Times and a practicing journalist, traveled to Washington D.C. in January to "cover" the 57th Presidential Inauguration as part of a virtual field trip for her journalism students. She also Skyped with her students from the event.

    Archives

    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

The Paper

About

Staff Listing

Join Us

Contact

Copyright © 2016