THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210213
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 124 lines
Fate has made him president in a cynical age, when a majority of Americans underscore their distaste for politics by not even bothering to vote.
But as he began his second term yesterday, Bill Clinton returned to the theme of hope that has sustained him through a quarter-century of campaigning.
And the quarter-million Americans who huddled against the cold and peered over security barriers to hear his message in person seemed ready to hope with him.
Eighteen-year-old Traci Kelley of Virginia Beach gave Clinton her first vote last fall, so she got a special thrill out of being able to watch him take the oath of office.
``I helped him get there, (so) I had a personal connection,'' she said.
Kelley was among 43 students from Tallwood High School who made the trip to Washington for the inauguration. She was drawn to the president by personal experience, she said.
Because her mother can't afford to pay for them, the braces straightening Kelley's teeth are being paid for in part by a Medicaid program Clinton fought to protect during last year's budget battles with congressional Republicans. And this fall, she said, she hopes to enroll at the University of Virginia or Hampton University on an ROTC scholarship, one of many scholarship programs the president also has championed.
The Tallwood students hit the road at 4:30 a.m. to get to their standing-room spaces in time for the midday ceremony. They were well down the hill from Clinton's podium at the west front of the Capitol, far enough back that they needed binoculars to pick out the familiar shock of gray hair as he made his way down the steps.
But they weren't complaining.
``I got to see the president - sorta,'' said Jessica Amerson, a Tallwood junior. And along with many of the other students, she had a chance encounter on the street with famed defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Some of them managed to get his autograph.
Other students in the Tallwood contingent connected with Clinton's youth, his talk of the promise of the Internet as an instrument for universal education and worldwide communication.
She thought Bob Dole was altogether too serious, too old, to be president, said Tracy Brickhouse, a Tallwood senior. Clinton seems able to relax, to laugh at his mistakes, and because he has a daughter about their age, ``he can relate to us,'' Brickhouse said.
More than 200 Tallwood students served as volunteers for Clinton and other Democratic candidates last fall, said Norman Fuller, the government and history teacher who escorted the group to the inauguration and later to the offices of Rep. Owen B. Pickett, their congressman.
The students described Fuller as an avowed Democrat who has stimulated them to get interested and involved in politics regardless of party. Other teachers who are active Republicans have offered them other perspectives, several said, further motivating them to get involved.
Though their parents are predominately Republican, in mock elections Tallwood students backed Clinton, Pickett and Democratic Senate candidate Mark Warner last fall.
``These kids are of another genre,'' Fuller said. ``They don't think like their parents.''
High school is well behind them, but Rosalie Pinkard of Virginia Beach and Ruby Turner of Richmond were as excited as any teen-agers in the crowd as they took in their first inaugural.
``I think it's great,'' said Pinkard, who confessed she was too far down the hill to hear much more than bits and pieces of the speech. ``I'm 43 and I've never seen anything like it. I got chills down my spine when he took his oath.''
Turner, a senior citizen who said she has voted and worked for Democrats for decades, was ``thrilled beyond words'' when her invitation to the swearing-in arrived last month. And his plea for racial reconciliation seemed tailored to answer her hope that he would urge Americans to ``let nothing divide us.''
``I believe in his principles. I believe in him,'' Turner said. ``My daily prayer is, `God, protect and defend our president.' ''
Democrats dominated the crowd spilling down the mall to the foot of the National Air and Space Museum, but as House Speaker Newt Gingrich observed during a post-inaugural luncheon, Clinton was ``among friends'' regardless of party.
Kristi Steketee, 20, who actively campaigned for Dole in her home state of Michigan, was up early Monday morning for a good seat to see Dole's victorious foe begin his second term.
``I'm just excited to see the president,'' she said. ``He is our nation's leader. Whether it's partisan or not, he's still a nice guy. He's still our president.''
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who presided over the swearing-in and counts Dole among his closest friends, went out of his way to thank Clinton ``on behalf of millions of Americans'' for awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the vanquished GOP candidate.
Warner used his moment in the national spotlight to hail the peaceful transfer of power the inauguration symbolizes. ``It is the conferring of this trust and authority - which has occurred without any interruption for 208 years - that is the cornerstone of our representative democracy,'' he said.
``It is a tribute to the strength of character of the American people and the endurance of their institutions.'' MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An inaugural parade spectator displays his patriotism and salutes as
the president's limo passes.
President Clinton is sworn in for his second term as thousands
watch.
The first family walks down Pennsylvania Avenue to start the
inaugural parade.
KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE
A protesting animal-rights activist from PETA is detained by police
for disrupting the inaugural parade.
BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Top center: Jennifer Nix, center, takes in the festivities on the
mall.
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
``I believe in his principles. I believe in him,'' Ruby Turner of
Richmond said of President Clinton. She visited with Sen. Charles S.
Robb during her Washington trip to watch her first inauguration.
People without first-class tickets to the inauguration try to get a
better view of the ceremony.
KEYWORDS: PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION 1997
TALLWOOD HIGH SCHOOL