Inauguration Stuff

January 20, 2009

I was alerted to check out Flickr's group "Inauguration 2009" (thanks John and Julie!). The group works as a photo sharing site so that everyone anywhere can upload photos or even short videos of what they are seeing during the inauguration. As of now there are 6,806 items uploaded. It is a public prism for viewing the inauguration.. and I enjoy the mixture of photos from live attendees in DC or some other city, TV shots, computer screen prints, and newspaper layouts. The slideshow is a great introduction to the multiple ways the inauguration was experienced today. I made a screen movie of the slideshow on Flickr (see above).. since these digital collective experiences are themselves a form of digital ephemera.

I began class by asking students if they had watched the inauguration, and I think everyone had. Many of them attended the live screening of the inauguration provided by Lawrence University. One student mentioned that CNN had teamed up with Facebook for the inauguration.. and that this allowed her to see instant responses from friends. At our home we watched the inauguration on television, over the strong objections of Aurora who wanted to continue watching Pete's Dragon. Plenty of first hand accounts are going up on the Internet about seeing the event live, of which this one by James Fallows can stand as a representative.

I can't say I was blown away by the actual speech, which I guess will now always be Obama's "First Inaugural." And I dislike the way this ceremony normalizes George W. Bush as a member of the presidential tradition in good standing.. when I believe he should be on trial for his abuses of power and negligence. The ritual and trappings of the presidency visually and emotionally override those kinds of concerns. But there can't be too many people whose hearts did not lift as George W. Bush exited the scene.

I liked this comment to a post by Matt Yglesias:

Drudge has a link to a video of people booing Bush as he enters the inaugural ceremonies. The anchors, whoever they were, were absolutely horrified and falling over themselves to talk about how terrible it was.

Somehow the idea that the president is the sovereign has sunk into the American subconscious. The MSM enforces this. If the people want to boo the president, the people will boo the fucking president. It’s not any talking head’s responsibility to correct us on our etiquette.

Assholes.

My sentiments exactly.. only I would argue that it is not just the MSM but also the official trappings of the event that lead to the elevation of the office over critical judgment.

Let me just add my own loud "boo" for the outgoing president.. with special reference to his disgusting hands-off approval of yet another disproportionate and stupid military adventure by Israel. I hope to cheer someday when this guy is given a prison sentence.. and I'm willing to wait a while for that day.

PDF file of James Fallows blog post "What did you miss by not being there" (12-20-2009).

PDf file of Matt Yglesias blog post "Disrespect" (12-20-2009).