My in-laws are watching the “pre-show” (for lack of a better term) for the inauguration and it is bringing back a lot of memories.  It seems hard to believe that I was standing on the mall myself half my lifetime ago, getting ready to watch Clinton being sworn in for his first presidential term.  I’m amazed to watch how many people are in the crowd this year, and to hear the tales of what the security is like for the inauguration and the parade.  

When I was there sixteen years ago, we didn’t have to leave at 4 am, we didn’t have to go through all the strict security checkpoints, and we managed to watch the parade without too much of a problem too.  There certainly was security present - the National Guard was out in force - but they were mainly there to watch the crowd rather than check it.   I was there with a group from my high school, we were largely let loose on the Mall and the city to watch the inauguration and the parade.  When I think about that now I’m rather amazed at the amount of freedom we had!  

We’re not going to be watching the inauguration this morning though, we’ll go to Mass as usual.  We are recording it, and we’ll watch some of it when we get back because I’d like to show Emma what goes into swearing in a new president.  I thought about skipping Mass to watch it in real-time, but I think that spending the time when Obama is inaugurated in prayer at Mass would be an excellent way for us to kick off this new presidential term.

UPDATE:  I really like Jenn’s take on the Inauguration.  Thanks for putting it all so well, Jenn!