This is the third in my “Driving to the Inaugural” series. I am driving from my computer with the assistance of memory and past images and television and internet. Triple A doesn’t have road service for this journey even though I have a premium membership. Here are the others in the series:
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One could be persuaded by the smiles of the crowds and the President Elect that there is only joy and hope riding the rails into Washington, DC.
The washington post.com reports this morning that homeland security folks, FBI are bedding down in government buildings in order to not get caught in gridlock.
It also reports that when he was nominated in Denver, the Secret Service made the largest order of bulletproof glass in its history.
“The service requested about 5 tons of “transparent armor,” laminated with four layers of virtually unbreakable plastic to resist chemicals, flames and multiple gunshots.
When Obama is sworn in as the nation’s 44th president Tuesday, the ballistic shield will provide a final layer of safety in a massive exercise in presidential security, the culmination of two years of a steady ratcheting up of the protection around Obama to a level unseen for any of his predecessors.”
This moment is complicated in its joy. Fearful in its hope. But, we as a nation have been here before. Lincoln’s journey to Washington for his inaugural was done under threats of secession as well as threats to his life. He and his family were forced to make the anticipated change of trains necessary back then to continue on to Washington in the cloak of darkness when a creditable threat surfaced at the scheduled change station.
These fears and complications we feel today are the transparent layers of our past as well as our future.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
wow, great picture!
Palpinao, this is why I love the Photoshop software. It allows me to blend images like the old world double exposure!