The nation’s capital wasn’t the only place that had inaugural balls on Tuesday. There were several around Baltimore as well. I know of at least one where tickets went for $50 a pop, and another where the price was $125.
Let’s do some quick math. Assuming both balls drew around 300 people each, that comes to a total of $52,500, some $2,500 more than what Anthony McCarthy asked people to donate to the I Can’t We Can center in Park Heights.
McCarthy went on a hunger strike in an attempt to raise that $50,000. He had to abandon the effort after 13 days, when it became apparent that people in the Baltimore area weren’t about to put up anywhere near $50,000 to fund an organization that helps recovering addicts get back on their feet and in the game of life. (“I said ‘these people are going to let me die,’ ” McCarthy quipped.)
“We raised about $6,000-$7,000,” McCarthy told me yesterday. I questioned him about the sense of priorities, this willingness of Baltimoreans to shell out 50 to 125 bucks a shot for inaugural ball tickets versus giving that money to organizations like I Can’t We Can. I’d imagine if the new president had his druthers, he’d have advised people to pass on the inaugural ball tickets and give the money to some worthy community organization that was about the business of helping people.
McCarthy said he knows of people who spent $200, $300 and $400 per inaugural ticket ball. He knows of one guy who spent $2,000 for two tickets, the same guy who balked and cried poor when McCarthy tried to get him to fork over a comparatively measly $100 for I Can’t We Can.
“It appears to me that even in these tough economic times,” McCarthy said, “that there was no expense too high for [people] to purchase a piece of this history.”
Many people wanted in on the history. McCarthy praised Mayor Sheila Dixon for opening the Convention Center so people could watch the inauguration ceremonies. He gave some kudos to Tom Kiefaber, owner of the Senator Theater on York Road, for opening his doors for people to do the same thing. Even I Can’t We Can had people come in to watch the ceremony.
“People wanted a place to be around other people,” McCarthy concluded.
Indeed they did, but I still believe the money spent on inaugural balls would have been better going to community organizations, many of which are now struggling. But it’s time for a little full disclosure: If it hadn’t been for what happened to me in the summer of 2007, I might have shelled out some dough for inaugural ball tickets myself.
DeWayne Wickham, a colleague of mine who writes a nationally syndicated column and also writes one for USA Today, invited me to go with him to hear Barack Obama deliver a campaign speech on urban policy in southeast Washington, D.C. (More full disclosure: Wickham also runs the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies in Greensboro, N.C. I’m a fellow at the IFAJS and I’ve also done work for it, traveling to places like Cuba — three times — Panama, Brazil and Grenada.)
After then-Sen. Obama’s speech, I got to meet Obama briefly before he did his interview with Wickham. I remember being impressed by how sincere and down-to-earth he was. When I left after our short meeting, I remember thinking “He’ll beat [Sen.] Hillary [Clinton]. And if he beats her, he’ll sure as heck beat whoever the Republicans put up.” I realized in the summer of 2007 that the nation stood a better than even chance of having its first black president in 2009.
But most of the people paying money for those inaugural balls haven’t met Obama. Their only way of participating in Tuesday’s historic moment was putting up what money they could to attend whatever inaugural ball was available to them. Yes, the man they were honoring would probably tell them to spend it elsewhere, but the people putting up the bucks would no doubt have a ready answer for both me and the new president:
It’s not our money.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years. Look for his
columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
