The heat of heart

[skyring]

Smithsonian Castle,
originally uploaded by skyring.

I ended my shift early last night, stocked up on hot dogs, sarsaparilla (another name for root beer, apparently) and Oreos, and staked out a position on the couch for the Obama inauguration. The Good Morning America coverage began with a shot of the Mall just as the first rays of the morning sun were lighting the tip of the Washington Monument, and already the space was crowded, with streams of people flowing in. By noon it was a solid mass of onlookers, all there to be a tiny part of history.

The GMA crew interviewed the spectators, asking, “Who has the most layers of clothing?” It was cold. Cold with windchill.

I’ve been there. I’ve walked through a bitter pre-dawn in Washington DC, and I’ve crunched across the Mall covered in fresh snow. That was exactly four years ago, the day after the second Bush inauguration, so I knew exactly how cold it was for the swelling crowd.

My wife and I had the city to ourselves then, and we spent a sparkling afternoon exploring the Smithsonians and marvelling at the wealth of art in the glittering halls of the National Art Gallery. But eventually the early twilight drove us outside, where we looked for a place to hail a cab. In the years following the 9/11 attacks, so many of the streets were lined with ugly cement barricades, but outside an impressive building on Constitution Avenue, there was a clear space. I set down my heavy tote bag with a sigh of relief and in a few moments a cab drew up beside us, just as I became nervously aware of the approach of a couple of uniformed security guards. Heavily armed security guards.

We hustled inside the cab and sped off.

“Crikey,” I said to the cabbie, a silver haired gent, “What’s the story there?”

“That the Department of Justice,” he replied. “They a bit antsy over Gitmo.”

Guantanamo Bay, where terrorist suspects were detained, had been the subject of some fairly high-level protesting in the weeks before our visit, so I guess that anybody carrying a bulky bag might arouse suspicions. After all, Washington itself had been attacked in 2001, and there were good reasons to be antsy.

The cab itself was an old model. Beautifully clean and tidy, but definitely showing the signs of a long life as a hack. I learnt later that the tax regime made it uneconomical to buy new vehicles, so cabs were operated until they fell apart, and this one didn’t have long to go.

We rattled through an intersection and I nudged my wife. “Look, the White House!”

“Yeah,” said the cabbie, “they got the wrong guy in there.”

We chatted the rest of the way to the hotel. He was interested in Australia, and we told him about the wildlife and the climate, stressing that we didn’t see much snow there. In fact it was summer right now, and we’d come straight from 30 degree heat to this snowy, subzero environment.

“Might move there,” he mused. “Might marry up one of them native girls, hey?”

We assured him that there was always room for taxidrivers in Australia, and gave him a small tip when he dropped us off at our hotel.

So when I saw Washington DC last night, looking frosty in the winter air, and joyous in the atmosphere of celebration, I remembered my own first fond impressions. Compared to Canberra, it’s a very different city, but there are similarities - the broad ceremonial avenues, the grand public institutions, the monuments and memorials. It’s a place where I can feel at home on the far side of the world.

“Aren’t you cold?” asked the television interviewer of one lovely old black woman, showing all her teeth in a fabulous smile.

“No, honey, I got my heart to keep me warm.”

There were a lot of happy hearts in Washington. A million strong, they thumped away and surged with excitement when Obama came out to take the oath. The sight of that sea of flags waving in a joyous tumult was unforgettable. I wish I was there, to share the excitement, to wave a flag, to feel the warmth of history and a glorious new dawn.

And somewhere, maybe in that crowd, maybe parked on a side street, listening on his cab radio, I am sure that there was one very happy cabdriver.

Comments

[atenea-nike.livejournal.com]

It's zarzaparrilla, actually.

Inauguration

[nelle-2.livejournal.com]

We watched it and were amazed by the crowds of people so full of hope and brotherly love. It was truly an historic event!

[texaswren.livejournal.com]

I was at Sam's Club (big warehouse store) just before the swearing in part. I wasn't able to stay for the swearing in, but I stood there with 2 young people, early 20's, until Obama came through the doors onto the platform. One of them commented on how many people were there, watching, and how many people had stopped at the bank of televisions in the store to watch. I told them that I had a friend in Australia who was watching it with hot dogs and root beer, even though it was the middle of the night. They thought that was really cool.

It was cool

[skyring.livejournal.com]

I was doing it for my US friends. You folk were having all the fun in the middle of the day - no way was I going to sleep through it.

But, much as I would have liked to be part of the online party, I was so tired I could barely stagger myself off to bed about four in the morning.

Still, I had a grand time. Like Otakuu, I was a little disappointed when the coverage shifted to one of our local broadcasters. They tried to explain things for locals who didn't know what was what. Our government systems are very different to yours - the head of government is pretty much determined by a party room vote and there's only a few witnesses when he is sworn in at Government House.

When we change a head of state, I don't know what we do. Presumably the incoming Governor-General takes the oath written down in the Constitution. It's all very low key.

Re: It was cool

[wyldanthem.livejournal.com]

I had no idea how different the two systems were! How does the party room vote work?

I also didn't realize sarsaparilla (zarzaparrilla?) was the same as root beer -- I always thought the former carried a stronger aftertaste and the later was sweeter. It's been a long time since I've had sarsaparilla, though. :)

Re: It was cool

[skyring.livejournal.com]

The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the majority party (or coalition of parties) in the House of Representatives. He has achieved his position as leader through a vote of the parliamentary representatives of his party, often as a result of challenging the previous leader.

Sometimes a prime minister loses his position through such a challenge. The most recent example was when Bob Hawke was beaten in a party room vote by Paul Keating, who then became the new Prime Minister.

Sometimes the Prime Minister is a leader of a minority party, and could potentially be outvoted in Parliament by the representatives of the other parties. This usually only happens with the approval of the Governor-General. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. when it doesn't, the Governor-General appoints a different leader or calls an election. We had one Parliament where there were three parties, each with roughly equal numbers, and all three leaders had a go at forming a government.