by Bill Offenloch

I went to DC for the last few days of the 9 day fast by Witness Against Torture which marked the anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo on Jan. 11 up until the inauguration of President Obama on Jan 20. It was also the beginning of the 100 Days Campaign which intends to maintain a presence in DC for the first 100 days of his presidency with daily vigils at the White House and other events to press for a closure of the prison and an end to torture as soon as possible. The core group is from the Catholic Worker. About 20 people were staying and fasting together in DC and another 80 or so around the country. Most were on a liquid fast drinking a variety of juices (sometimes excessive amounts in my view), broths and coffee and even a beer or two – not a very doctrinaire, ascetic group. But a few people drank only water. I only fasted on water for the last 3 days.

I arrived via Chinatown bus on Saturday afternoon. Not finding the group in the streets, I made my way to Union Station which was packed with people both traveling in for the festivities and coming to greet the Obama train which was to arrive from Baltimore. Again I could not find the group (even in their orange jump suits) in the crowds so I went up to the Japanese Buddhist temple on 16th St. where most people were living. It's a huge old mansion, once an embassy, where only one nun regularly lives. The two upper floors have hardly been used recently so we had to do a number of repairs (incl. plumbing) to make it habitable but it is invaluable space especially at the time of the inauguration when Washington was packed with visitors. It can accommodate 25 easily with some sleeping on mats on the floor.

Sunday morning 10 of us went to a gospel mass at St. Al's on North Capital St. intending to meet up with the rest of the group to vigil on the Mall where there was to be a giant free concert in the afternoon. However, when the rest of the group tried to head down to the Mall by bus they found 16th St. closed off by the police and traffic stopped. As it turns out Obama was coming for Sunday services at a Baptist church a block from the Buddhist temple so they all vigiled there with signs and jumpsuits. Not knowing this, the 10 of us at St. Al's got into our jumpsuits and black hoods and walked down the Mall from the Capitol towards the Lincoln Memorial with the crowds heading that way. The reaction was surprising positive with many supportive comments. We were afraid the concert goers would see our presence as raining on their parade. The mood was celebratory with all sorts of Obama tee shirts, stickers, banners and signs both being worn and sold all over. People are so happy to be done with the Bush era. It was like a winter Woodstock festival without the drugs and mud – or hippies. Obamamania.

We were only able to get as far as the Washington Monument before it got too crowded to process along in an orderly fashion. So we vigiled there on the hillside while thousands came by to take pictures and many wanted to discuss the issues. The concert itself which we could watch even from such a distance thanks to the giant screens set up around the Mall was a mixture of speeches and music from lots of big name stars from the entertainment world which I won't go into here. It's been all over the news and web. One highlight came at the end when we had started to leave to first hear and then turn to see Pete Seeger, his grandson Tao and Bruce Springsteen doing Woodie Guthrie's “This land is my land” with the original radical verses which are hardly ever heard anymore.

On Monday, after a morning reflection and go around on how people were doing we took the bus to the White House and processed around outside it in our jumpsuits and hoods. Carmen T. occasionally harangued the crowds on the issues and why we were there. After a few hours we bused back to the Temple,got off the bus and were stopped by a motorcycle cop who told us to back up the sidewalk. They were freezing the street. And in a few minutes Obama's motorcade came by on the way back from Walter Reed. We were ready in jump suits with lots of signs and no one else around so he should have seen us. Quite fortuitous timing.

Monday evening we went to a candlelight vigil and church service for MLK's birthday. The program put together by the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership (FOR initiated) was good but went on and on... much too long. We left after 4 hours and there was still another hour to go. We had to plan our next day.

Tuesday was Inauguration day and the end of the fast. For some reason (something about 100 drummers to greet us which didn't happen) it had been decided to break the fast at dawn in downtown DC. So we had to leave at 6:30 to be at MacPherson square near the White House at 7. It was a freezing morning. But we made it and ended the fast with cups of a steaming, hearty soup with bread and tea and fruit and cookies. After that we marched in jumpsuits and hoods to the Mall with the throngs going for the inaugural ceremonies. Again we ended up by the Washington monument and after a few hours vigiling and thousands more photos we joined the packed, jubilant crowd to watch Obama's swearing in and speech.

Overall I'm cautiously optimistic that Obama is going to make some positive changes including closing the Guantanamo prison. However, there's so much more that need to be changed in our society we should have plenty to keep us busy in the years to come. At least George Bush’s administration is history although his legacy will haunt us for some time to come.