A striking number of metro Atlantans are so upset about a Trump presidency they refuse to watch the inauguration Friday. But many others are planning to celebrate with parties, marathon TV watching and big hopes for the future.
J.D. Van Brink is throwing a party and making his signature chicken and smoked sausage gumbo. That’s the dish that, when he’s not giving it away, people pay him to cook.
"Friday night, a big party," Van Brink, who lives in Acworth and is chairman of the Georgia Tea Party, said. "It's a celebration of the changing of the guard."
Carrie Genova, no Trump supporter, is looking at the ceremony very differently. She had planned to shun it altogether but now says she’ll watch, if only to cheer on the protesters.
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Genova and her husband do self-employed construction work and they have twin 13-year-old boys with moderate autism. She’s afraid that Trump’s plan to dismantle Obamacare will lead to an attack on the Medicaid health insurance that her kids receive.
“It’s my way to personally boycott it,” said Genova, 39, of Sugar Hill. “I don’t want to call him my president.”
And so goes so much of metro Atlanta, Georgia and the country. On Friday, the New York business tycoon will place his hand on a Bible and take the oath of office before an intensely divided nation. Even elders among us say this is perhaps the most divisive public reaction they’ve seen to the ceremonial passing of the torch.
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The AJC asked readers on its Facebook page whether they would watch the event, and received a balanced mix of about 2,000 responses. Both sides were intense in their beliefs, some supporting it, some dodging it.
“Watching it , recording it, and loving it!! And thanking the Lord and offering prayer for their leadership and safety,” said one woman.
Another, of a different mindset: “I’d rather walk across a floor covered in Legos and then drink a gallon of sour milk than watch this.”
One woman said she was undergoing a root canal, preferring that to watching the inauguration. Another, a Trump supporter, said she was so excited she would be watching the entire day’s coverage of festivities.
Patti Garrett, 63, will travel from her home in Lawrenceville to the “Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women” on Saturday. She is among those still hitting the panic button over Trump becoming president.
“I find him so against the things I believe in,” said Garrett, adding this is her first protest march. “It’s a matter of standing up for what you believe in. I find that a little empowering at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Rosalie Parkey, a Trump supporter, is traveling from her Alpharetta home to Washington to attend the ceremony. This is a “bucket list” event for her. The kids are off to college and she scrambled to score a ticket. She’s packing four extra batteries for her smartphone, as she expects to take a lot of video.
“I didn’t like the direction the country was going,” said Parkey. She likes Trumps ability to look at problems with a business eye and to “cut through the crap.”
Parkey worries about the protests planned in Washington, that something could flare up and cause trouble.
“I don’t like it, but you can’t suppress it,” she said. “That’s contrary to our views as Americans.”
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