Thursday is presidential inauguration day.
At least we’re reasonably certain the winner of the popular vote will be the man actually sworn in this time. It feels a little better to know that the president received the majority of votes (even if the majority of citizens still question his policies).
The event will be classic Bush. National security concerns are being put on the backburner so that the inaugural parties can go on. “D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects,” reported The Washington Post last week. “Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.” Who needs to protect the District anyway.
Tomorrow will be a great day. Everyone will be safe. We have nothing to be concerned about anywhere in America tomorrow. Except maybe Boston.
I attended the 1993 Clinton-Gore inaugural (they reimbursed DC for the costs with privately raised funds). Of course, there was plenty of pageantry and some gross examples of excess. But at the same time the inaugural committee hosted dinners for homeless District residents and there was even an inaugural ball for people living on the streets. Regular Americans (teachers, firefighters, social workers, nurses, etc.) were included in all the festivities. It was a different time.
