Faber meets Congressman on historic trip

A majestic view of the Capitol for President Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington D.C. was a treat to Le Mars native Steve Faber's eyes, thanks to help from Representative Steve King, who connected Faber with the tickets. Here King is pictured with Faber in Washington. [Click to enlarge]

"Attaining something unattainable" is the best way Steve Faber can describe his experience with the freshman Living and Learning Communities (LLC) trip to the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Through a series of extremely fateful occurrences, the politically-minded cinema and digital arts major and native Iowan unexpectedly managed to receive two of the sought after inaugural tickets.

The whole circle of events began when Faber's father filled out a constituent survey for Iowa's Fifth District Rep. Steve King. In the comment box at the end of the survey, Faber's father wrote that his son would be attending the inauguration as part of a trip with Point Park University, as well as leaving his son's cell phone number.

On Jan. 10, Faber received a phone call from King's secretary explaining they would like him to meet with King on Jan. 19 for a meet and greet. All Faber said he expected at this point was to meet with his Congressman.

Natalie Taylor, the director of residential co-curricular education and assistant professor Dr. Anthony Moretti had tried to contact Rep. Mike Doyle in the planning stages of the trip to receive tickets, but there was no response, LLC coordinator Charles Nash said.

"When I first heard about the LLC trip, the word 'tickets' was used so I expected we would have tickets in front of the capital building. So of course I went for it and paid the fee, and it wasn't until the first or second meeting until I gradually realized it was basically shoot for the best and find the closest place on the Mall, wake up as early as you can and do your best. I was kind of bummed about it," Faber said.

On Jan. 19, a small group, including Nash and Taylor, ventured to the Longworth Building with Faber to meet with King.

"I was told over the phone [to meet at] 1 p.m. in Longworth building, so I got there at 12:30 p.m. and I expect to walk in easily. I saw long, long lines of people wrapping around the block and I started to get nervous. We get in line and I'm pretty concerned because its 12:30 p.m. going on 1 p.m. and I didn't want to stand up the Congressman," Faber said.

Faber also said that the vast majority of the hundreds of people waiting in the lines were those waiting to receive their inaugural tickets.

Through the use of the Internet on his cell phone, Faber managed to get in contact with King's secretary. She told him she would try to send out an aide to find him and bring him into the building, he said. At this point Faber, Nash and Taylor said they had been waiting outside in line for nearly 40 minutes.

"Fifteen minutes later, I recognize Steve King walking down the street. I took him by surprise because he didn't know what I looked like," Faber said.

According to Faber, the Congressman said he could get him cleared through security into the building because of all of the ticket line chaos and that he was also trying to find his own way inside. He advised Faber to stay in line in order to enter the building and told him that he was available for the meeting all afternoon.

Faber then continued to wait in line for another hour while the rest of the group, including Nash and Taylor, left because they believed they had no way of accessing the building.

After he finally went through security, the sight of the historical and important building exhilarated him, Faber said.

"[It was a] really big deal for me because people were there just for the quick, instant gratification of getting the ticket. Just being there held a lot of sentimental value for me," Faber said.

Faber said that when he reached King's office that the Congressman was pressed for time, so he was sent in the meeting with another man and his son. In the meeting, Faber enjoyed small talk with King about the irony of the inauguration considering they are both Republicans.

At the end of the meeting, Faber asked the question that would change the course of his trip:

"Nearly verbatim what I said was, 'I suppose by this time all of the inauguration tickets have been depleted?' He was kind of nudging and he starts nodding his head, but then he asked, 'Do you not have tickets? OK, let me tell you what I'll do. If we have any cancellations, I'll be sure to leave your number and we'll get those to you if we can. Hopefully we'll have a couple left over.' I leave riding an awesome high of maybe I might get them," Faber said.

Only five minutes later, right outside of the building, Faber said he received a voicemail message from King's secretary explaining that two tickets had opened up and that they would like him to stay while an aide brought out the tickets.

"I felt sheer elation, like literally the expression of jumping for joy applied. The sheer joy of actually attaining something unattainable, everything clicked at the last minute," Faber said.

On Jan. 20, Moretti was the lucky recipient of Faber's second ticket. The two said that trying to make it to their position in the National Mall was extremely difficult. They estimated that there was a rectangular block of people in line reaching possibly a quarter to a half of a mile. Their wait was unexpectedly long to reach security.

"It was about three and a half hours waiting and the ceremony starts at 11:30 a.m. and everyone was concerned that by then security would close the gates and not let anybody in, although everyone legally had a ticket," Faber said. "People became very uneasy when 11:30 a.m. came and went and we could hear people cheering and faint words and we were still two blocks away from the Capitol."

When he finally made it through security, although separated from Moretti, he made a "mad dash" as far as he could to find a good spot to watch the inauguration. In fact, Faber said he approached a spot to stand just as Chief Justice John Roberts was being announced.

"It was almost divine. The heavens parted and I got there right as I saw the swearing in," Faber said.

"A lot of the people that supported Obama were there to support Obama the man, Obama the candidate or whatever change Obama represented to them. I was there for Obama the president-elect being sworn in as the first African-American to become president," Faber said. "Just the sheer importance and significance of the office demands respect, and although I may disagree with him on policy, no matter who he is, it is a great day for America when the cornerstone of our country, our democracy is fulfilled."