DC dispatch: Jan. 20
A counter-demonstrator (bottom) taunts a religious group near Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.
SMN
Ahhh, there it is! There’s the D.C. we all remember.
The last two days offered little more than empty streets and a conspicuous lack of pedestrians all across the District, but on Jan. 20, just prior to the start of the Biden/Harris administration, some of the usual sights and sounds from the D.C. of old finally began to emerge.
Sure, it was still relatively benign, what with the COVID and the insurrection still looming over everything, but at least there was this old guy standing near the Capitol blowing a flag-draped shofar horn. Were it any other inauguration, there may have been perhaps ten more just like him.
Were it any other inauguration, there may have been perhaps more than just two groups of Christian demonstrators bearing large banners and hollering into bullhorns telling passersby that masturbation makes you gay and that today’s make of unwholesome woman talks too much and cooks to little.
There may have been more scrums, more crowds and more gaggles were it any other inauguration, but most of America seemed to heed Biden’s advice to stay safe by staying home.
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Indeed, during a relatively large congregation on New Jersey Avenue NW and D Street NW in the shadow of the United States Capital Dome, journalists, bloggers and other media-types far outnumbered actual onlookers.
One such journo, clutching a microphone, approached a young woman asking if she would be interested in sharing her opinion on what they were witnessing.
“Oh, yeah, no, sorry,” she said. “I’m media too.”
SMN Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt and photographer Jeffrey Delannoy will report from Washington, D.C., all this week. Check back for more through Jan. 23.
