Inaugural Purple Tunnel Gets Ode, Investigation

Any regular (or irregular, but get some Activia) readers of these pages know very well that the Purple Tunnel is the place where our own Ris brothers, along with thousands of their closest friends, got stuck during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

The people in that tunnel held tickets to the inauguration, good tickets, but all they were fated to see that day were the backs of each others' heads.

Most of them used public transportation, and showed up hours early. Thousands of ticketholders from other sections also failed to get in, but I guess the Purplers have that whole tunnel mystique going for them.

Now, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen is joining Senator Dianne Feinstein in calling for an investigation into what went wrong. From MSNBC:

I am writing to express my deep concern over the fact that thousands of people who had tickets were denied access to the historic swearing-in ceremony for President Barack Obama, and applaud you for initiating a thorough investigation into how this happened. I strongly endorse this review and look forward to learning what went wrong so we can avoid such problems in the future.

The Purplers have their own Facebook group, and now have a song burning up the YouTube charts:



As someone who managed to jump the Blue line at the last second, I suppose I should feel some sort of "survivor's guilt," especially since I'm a liberal. Even worse is the fact that I spent the day holding an extra, useless ticket (thanks to Caleb Howe).

What happened to all of the ticketholders who didn't get in, and all of the people on the Mall who had no TV or speakers to see the ceremony, is a disgrace.

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