Inauguration weekend in DC tell the White House — No blank check for Israel!

This is billboard material for sure. Gets the message out clearly and gruesomely. Cover of a book? Folks should spread this one around. So sad I am missing the activities this inauguration. A dear friend who is publisher, division director and at Green America (formerly Co-op America) for 3o years three blocks from the White House just wrote and we reminisced about Obama’s first inauguration. Cold cold day what was it two million people on the mall? More long luxurious fur coats than I have ever seen. A huge beehive of people keeping each other warm on that mall in front of those huge screens waiting with bated breath for Obama to take the oath. I ended up with over 10 tickets with spots just behind the reflection pool (lots of hours in for Senator Brown that first time around) gave some to Code Pink folks, some to some homeless Vets I had met that week at the war memorial just outside Union station (made sure they got in) . I swear the loudest applause went up for Mohammad Ali. Wish I were a camera person so many beautiful tears running down peoples faces as Obama took the oath. But as I just shared with my friend one of my strongest memories that day is as the huge crowd started to slowly disperse the helicopter taking Bush from the White House or inauguration (can’t remember where he was leaving from but they were showing it on the screens) was overhead. People started singing “na na na na na na na na hey hey hey good bye” with smiles so big you could have lit up the sky. There were many middle fingers up, many Bah fungoos, and some serious swearing going around as Bush departed.

The other strong memory and I know I have shared it before here but what the hell. After hours of moving with the massive crowd to our positions on the mall we were packed like sardines but it in many ways kept everyone somewhat warm. One of the many conversations I had that day with people was the one with Steve a young African American male (at that time 24) who had just returned from Iraq a few months before the inauguration. During the conversation I had asked what he had done in Iraq and he shared that one of his jobs had been to help prepare dead American soldier bodies for their return trip back to the US. We both started crying. I asked him why he had volunteered for the army? He answered that he had believed everything Bush and Cheney had been saying about the connection between the attacks on 9/11 and Iraq. I asked him what he had learned? Steve “I will do everything in my power to make sure young people do not go to war based on lies again” We teared up again. As we watched Barack Obama take the oath of office Steve leaned his head into mine and said “I will never forget this moment” I let him know that I honored his intention to protect this country and was so deeply sorry that his honorable intentions had been so horribly misused. That I had done everything in my power having known many young men who had been sent to Vietnam based on lies to stop the unnecessary and immoral invasion of Iraq. That I would never forget that moment standing next to such a wonderful and honorable young man watching the first African American President Barack Obama be inaugurated.

Ah what a glorious inauguration day four years ago. That night two different parties. One right next door to Union Station where Amy Goodman, Joan Baez (danced right next to her) and Harry Bellafonte rocked the room. Amy brought up Cast Lead and the horrific actions of the Israeli’s. Some people started leaving the “liberal” room. You know those “liberal” Democrats. We also went to a party we were not invited to. Really fancy dancy inauguration party and we just walked through the doors.

I believe with President Obama’s selection of Senator Hagel for Secretary of Defense and Senator Kerry for Secretary of State we hopefully are on a much more sane foreign policy path. Our job is to “make them do it”