Photo by Bullneck
Next January 21, when either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney are leading an inaugural parade up Pennsylvania Avenue NW, they will pass by a collection of local officials who will be protesting the District’s lack of budgetary and representative autonomy. Though Mayor Vince Gray didn’t go into any detail, he told WAMU yesterday that a presidential inauguration provides an ample platform to heighten the visibility of D.C.’s status relative to the rest of the country.
“Obviously, in this instance, only every four years, so while we don’t have concrete plans at this stage, we all very cognizant of the opportunity we have in front of us,” he said.
Whatever Gray and other District leaders are plotting, expect them to make use of the reviewing stand that will be constructed in front of the John A. Wilson Building as the inaugural route nears its end point at the White House.
But anyone involved in this planned protest will want to make sure they’re on the U.S. Secret Service’s super-secure guest list for access to the Wilson Building and its adjacent reviewing stand. The Washington Times reports that on the weekend before the presidential inauguration, the Secret Service will set up a command post inside the District government’s headquarters. From that point forward, anyone entering the building will need to be cleared by the Secret Service. It’s a requirement that caused headaches for some in January 2009, the Times reports:
Four years ago, “there were people on guest lists who were not allowed to come into the Wilson Building because they weren’t cleared by Secret Service,” [D.C. Secretary Cynthia] Brock-Smith told Mayor Vincent C. Gray and council members at their monthly breakfast. “So needless to say, on that day, entry into the building is invitation-only.”
And if anyone wants to bring any equipment into the building for use on Inauguration Day—catering gear, party hats, protest props—they’ll need to have it in place by 10 p.m. the night before.
Still, while Gray was coy in WAMU’s report, it seems that the Wilson Building’s current occupants have more planned for Inauguration 2013 than their predecessors did for 2009. While Shadow Senators Mike Brown and Paul Strauss used the D.C. Statehood fund to plaster the city with signs reading “Yes we can! D.C. statehood now!”—riffing one of the recently elected Obama’s campaign slogans—then-Mayor Adrian Fenty took a much more demure tack toward the new president.
“I expect Obama to get behind a pragmatic but aggressive advancement of voting rights,” Fenty told NewsChannel 8.
How things work out. Maybe more signs are in the offing, then.
