This is Eleanor Norton Holmes' tenth Congressional term and she can't catch a break. Washington DC is absolutely flush with people who will do or die to get a ticket to the Obama inauguration. "I shut down my website ... I've had 10,000 or so requests," lamented Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia. Yo, this could get serious! DC is probably not prepared for an Andrew Jackson inauguration episode. The boozers ran amok! "Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe," said Margaret Smith in 1829, describing Jackson's inauguration in a letter to a friend. Is the DC police up to the task?
Congresswoman Holmes said to Michelle Martin on NPR's "Tell Me More" that the Obama team should "throw away the book," and consider unorthodox ways to get the largest possible number of people in to the inauguration whether with sit-down seats or standing room only. Clearly it will be an historic moment for African-Americans, and the fact that DC is majority African-American could pose logistical issues.
Congresswoman Norton has actually had to alter the messages on her Congressional voice mail, "If you're calling about tickets to the inauguration we have no information yet, if you're calling about something else, press zero."
"My concern," said Norton, exhausting the topic, "is that the throngs are going to be so large that they won't be able to get to the security guards to show their ticket."
(The chaotic Jackson inauguration via tcnj)
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