Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.
Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears weekly. Reach her at [email protected].
I've had the opportunity to do some interesting and wonderful things in my life, but until last weekend had never been to the inauguration of a president.
I've seen a few presidents in my time: I was one of four young Nevadans who received an invitation to see Leonid Brezhnev land on the White House lawn to visit President Nixon while participating in a national conference of the Future Business Leaders of America.
I saw President Reagan at a rally here in Nevada. And my younger brother marched in Nixon's Inaugural Parade in 1972. But that's the closest I've gotten.
Mike and I were in Washington last Saturday, however, for one of the "unofficial" inaugural balls -- the Environmental Ball. (Several people have asked why environmentalists would hold a celebration for Bush. I reply that we're very optimistic people.) The National Wildlife Federation, the organization whose board I chair, was one of the co-sponsors of the event.
While we were there, we decided against the warmest and most sensible way to watch the inaugural events on a cold, rainy day: hearthside in a warm pub in front of the television. We decided that we wouldn't really be able to enjoy the "flavor" of the Inauguration from watching someone report on it, so we donned what little cold weather gear we still have to brave the elements.
We stayed just about eight blocks from the White House, so we didn't have far to walk. Just as we walked out of our hotel, we saw a group of 100 or so protesters marching down the street.
The next interesting moment came when we got to Pennsylvania Avenue and had to go through the security checkpoint after squeezing through a tiny opening in a concrete barrier. We were jammed in there with a bunch of protesters with signs. Though they weren't violent and I'm not claustrophobic, I was grateful the crowd didn't engage in any pushing or shoving while we were among the group -- someone could have been trampled.
Once we accessed the parade route, we had the chance to look around and try to figure out what all the protesting was about. It became clear very quickly that not everyone likes John Ashcroft, that the black voters in Florida are still mad, that somebody I've never even heard of needs to be released, that Bush was "selected, not elected," that women want the right to choose, and that some people don't think we have much of a democracy going here.
In our minds, it was very clear that only in a democracy would everyone be able to come together as they did in our nation's capitol last weekend with so many different views and the ability to express them so freely.
It was quite clear that the military forces, the policemen, and the other peace-keeping personnel on hand, not to mention the Secret Service men, are all sleeping more easily now that the long day is one for the history books. The way the presidential motorcade zoomed down Pennsylvania Avenue past the portion where the protestors lined the road was a clear indication that they weren't taking any chances.
Seeing the presidential motorcade zip past was about as close as we got to the president. You needed a special invitation to get a decent view of the festivities.
We stood at the side of the parade route for four hours waiting for the parade to begin. After the motorcade sped past, all I really wanted to see was the high school band from Gardnerville play. Not bad enough, though, to stand in the cold for any longer. So we walked back up the street and headed for a warm bath.
That was the perfect prelude to the evening ahead.
Though the mood at the Environmental Ball was cautious and it wasn't on President Bush's itinerary, those who were there enjoyed hearing from Gayle Norton, Bush's nominee to head the Department of the Interior -- a significant appointment to those who live in Nevada with so much of our state being public land.
At the end of the evening, a cautiously optimistic group left the Sequoia restaurant hopeful that this Republican administration will remember the bipartisan nature of conserving our nation's natural resources.
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