Thoughts on Inauguration

Cross posted on Daily Kos.



I had the privilege of going to D.C. yesterday to witness the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Instead of rehashing the details of his speech, as many have done already, I want to talk about something I think the media has not emphasized enough: the crowd.



Yes, there were a lot of African Americans at the Mall yesterday. Many more, I'm sure, than had been at any other inauguration. The population of the District of Columbia is more than 56% Black, and yet often times when we look at pictures of past inaugurations the crowd is the whitest crowd imaginable.

But honestly, what struck me most was not just the racial diversity, but all of the diversity of the crowd - age, geographic region, socioeconomic status. There were hipsters from Brooklyn and evangelicals from South Carolina (and neither group was protesting). There were five year olds in school groups and seventy five year olds in wheelchairs. There were people with $5 disposable cameras and people with $5000 video recorders.

As I looked out into the sea of people, I really appreciated Obama's unprecedented ability to bring people together. There were so many people at this inauguration that had not been at any inauguration before (myself included). There were many, many people in the crowd that booed when Bush came out from the Capital, but there were also many people that shouted "give the guy a break" and told people to be quiet - this feeling of compassion is something Obama seemed to encourage.

There was an incredible feeling of hope in Washington yesterday. Obama has a hard road ahead of him, but he had 2 million freezing people at his inauguration yesterday - that has to count for something.

Blagojevich Has Company!

Cross posted at Daily Kos.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted on Friday and charged with 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, office misconduct and fraud. No, she didn't try to sell a United States Senate seat (that's a shout out to you, Rod), but it's still a big deal.

But when one compares Sheila Dixon to past Baltimore mayors, one sees that she's actually not that bad in comparison. There was the Mayor J. Barry Mahool, who pushed the first local segregation ordinance through the City Council. There was Mayor James H. Preston, who collaborated with Chicago Mayor Fred A. Busse to implement the Chicago Plan, the most drastic example of racial zoning in U.S. history, in Baltimore. Compared to what these mayors did, Dixon doesn't actually look so bad.

None of these mayors were ever indicted because what they did was not illegal at the time. But the effects of their policies had much more negative consequences for the people of Baltimore than Dixon's alleged felonies have.

It's not clear whether or not Dixon is guilty. The Baltimore Sun points out that the investigation has been ongoing for about 2 years and the evidence is quite strong, but it also mentions that the Republican-appointed state prosecutor has allegedly had it in for the mayor.

Either way, Dixon presses on. And she has a right to - she is the first female African American mayor the city has ever elected, and she has brought the crime rate down to a 20 year low. If she is found guilty, she could be sentenced to more than 80 years in prison, something Mahool and Preston were never subjected to.