Reporter's Notebook: Journalist or Citizen or Both?

Jan. 21, 2005 — -- By now you've had a chance to hear or read the text of President Bush's second inaugural speech, and the subsequent analysis by the minds at ABC News or elsewhere on the implications and weight of the words, so let me try and paint you a different type of picture of the day.

Regardless of how many layers you were wearing on the chilly Washington day, and how many "hot packets" you shoved into your shoes or gloves to get warm, there was still a certain excitement in the air. Perched 50 to 75 feet off the ground, on what seemed an unsteady set of high-tech bleachers for the media, I shared a vantage point with the cameras that attempted to peer down into the eyes and soul of the president above and through the bulletproof glass.

From this place, I also had a chance to watch the media machine at work. While waiting for the speech, I looked down on those among us who had earlier brazenly cut the long media security lines to get to these bleachers. I watched the senators with future aspirations who dutifully made their rounds offering their predictions and assessments of words yet to be delivered.

I noticed how few members of the press place their hand over their hearts, or stand at attention when the national anthem is sung. I wondered more whether it was because this group of press thought it "un-cool" to be patriotic -- or because they really just weren't participating in the event they all had their lenses trained on -- but instead were here to cover.

When I felt cold, I looked up on the top outer ring of the Capitol rotunda where Secret Service agents peered back through binoculars and snipers kept walking at purposefully random patterns.

As the president was being given his oath by William Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, it was a relatively quiet moment, but I could hear protesters crying out their discontent. It was a voice -- perhaps two -- amidst a sea of supporters seated and standing near the Capitol to see this moment.

While those shouts seemed largely to be ignored, I noticed how much more powerful the silent gesture of turning a back to the event was. Three people near the center section of the crowd, simply stood up in one of the aisles, faced their back toward a president who likely never saw them, and put up peace signs with their fingers -- immediately drawing the attention of those around them, and the press that were in the area.