WHAT RECOURSE FOR JILTED OBAMA FANS?

Senator Dianne Feinstein is leading an investigation into the crowd-management snafu on inauguration day that resulted in thousands of ticket holders being shut out from the Capitol grounds before the ceremony. Recently the following e-mail discussion took place, at the office of More Intelligent Life and Economist.com, between two purple-ticket holders--myself and a fellow editor--inspired by a link forwarded by a concerned colleague. The question, really, is what can be done to make up for the fiasco?

E-mail from colleague: Your voice shall be heardhttp://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=dde17e40-3f24-4710-91b7-dfe99cf6631d

J: I've been following this, but so far have resisted joining that Facebook group. I slipped in through the yellow gate at the last minute, so I'd feel like a bit of a whiner (survivor's guilt, maybe?)

A: I'm on that group, even though I wasn't a tunneller. I can't really tell if it's a joke or not--I think it's a mixed bag. Certainly it's worth griping about, and it's funny to see how easily Facebook brings together our fellow gripers, but I should hope that no one actually gets carried away into thinking that an important wrong has been done.

J: I think those people are mostly very serious--you may have to read the wall posts to see just how much so. And I do think an important wrong has been done, especially to the campaign volunteers who travelled from across the country at the transition team's invitation. What's silly is to think anything can be done about it now.

A: I think something can and should be done, actually. And I think the situation was worse than depicted--genuinely dangerous, in fact. What I'd like to see is these protesters maintaining a sense of proportion about the scale of the problem they've organised against. As an elderly black man turned to say to me, at one point (kindly; I only realised he was chastising me when I thought about it, later), "It's a small sacrifice."

J: What do you mean, something can be done? Certainly they should be better prepared next time around, but I don't think a good consolation prize exists. People have suggested private events with the president in attendance, and the senator in charge of the investigation is supposedly preparing packets of memorabilia to be mailed to purple-ticket holders, but I think these are a waste of resources.
And yes, it was a very dangerous situation. We're just lucky our fellow ticket-holders were in such good spirits!

A: I think they could invite ticket-holders to some kind of consolation event. Not the president, wasting his time walking around a stadium. But wouldn't it be easy and nearly cost-free to allow a big audience to see him do something historic and pro forma? (Like, sign the order that brings home America's last combat troops from Iraq, eg.) Some big-gesture favour of the sort that campaign volunteers typically receive; just because he's inaugurated doesn't mean all the opportunities are over.

J: I agree that something like that might be appropriate. But think of the logistics, considering that thousands of people were shut out at the inauguration! It just doesn't seem like something the White House would take on.

And now, dear readers, what do you say?

Picture credit: melanie.phung (via Flickr)