Trump inauguration: KC watches — or not — as era begins

For some in the Kansas City area, Friday morning brought joy and hope for better days ahead.

For others, it was a stinging moment, an event that even 10 weeks after Election Day remained almost inconceivable.

From schools to retirement homes, some Kansas City area residents tuned in for the 11 a.m. inauguration of Donald Trump and his first speech as the 45th U.S. president. Others tuned out.

Here are some snapshots as Trump was sworn in.

Trump watch party

In an Independence hotel bar that opened early, Republicans who had weathered two elections and eight years with the other side in office felt more than a little glee at what was happening.

“It’s surreal,” said Nola Wood, a sometime Republican candidate for public office and health insurance agent. “If he does just 75 percent of what we agree on, our nation will be in much better shape.”

What was hard to imagine a year ago was happening. Donald Trump had bulled past the establishment, and the Democrats, to take the oath of the highest office in the land.

So they broke out the red-white-and-blue sweaters, the flag pins and sat with friends to see the history they had so dearly hoped for play out on TV.

“I`m happy,” said W. Dale Russell of Blue Springs. “I don’t get excited much. But I’m definitely happy.”

The cheery dozen-plus gathered to watch Trump’s swearing in took pride when home-state Sen. Roy Blunt stepped onto the stage, along with a Missouri State University choir.

They clapped when Mike Pence stood to take his oath, and again after he finished.

“You’re fired, Joe,” somebody quipped of the outgoing vice president.

When it was Trump’s turn, they all stood. Some snapped pictures on phone cameras pointed at the TV.

“Woo, hoo!!”

“Well, thank God for that,” one man said.

“It’s been eight years,” said another.

They hung on every syllable of his inauguration speech, falling into a call-and-response rhythm with the TV.

When Trump told Americans this was their country, the hotel gathering answered, “Amen.” When he called for people moving off welfare — “Hey, hey!” “The American dream!” When the new president of the United States spoke of “radical Islamic terrorism” — a phrase his predecessor had carefully avoided saying — “He called it what it is. Finally.”

And as Trump built to his conclusion, the clapping built and in unison they said it with him: “Make America great again!”

“That speech, the things he said, is why he won,” said state Rep. Mike Cierpiot, the majority leader of the Missouri House. “There’s people struggling out there and he said it. … He`s going to change things. It’s going to be disruptive. It won’t be easy. But it’s going to be good for this country.”

Watching Trump walk the Obamas to Marine One brought yet more cheer. “Goodbye!” “Good riddance.” “Great, a one-way ticket.”

Scott Canon, The Star

Fifth-graders in KCK

The setup for the fifth-grade students in Stony Point South Elementary School in Kansas City, Kan., was about grasping the weight of this moment.

“What is happening?” teacher Kathy Silverman asked. The fifth-graders, most just 10 years old, fumbled for the words they’d learned.

“Inauguration,” one finally said.

“Going to swear in,” said another.

They knew the president’s name was Donald Trump. The vice president? That was harder.

Did any remember that last time we watched such a ceremony? Some tried to conjure memories, imaginations of seeing Barack Obama sworn in. But they were too young then.

“You don’t remember,” teacher Marli Brandt said. “This is a historical moment.”

They watched in rowed chairs, faces aimed on the screen, in a school with a nearly 50-50 split between white and minority children.

This is democracy in action, Silverman said, and it is still worth fighting for, she said, in a country that has come so far from a time when “many of you would not have been sitting beside each other.”

As Trump began to speak, after a while, the teacher prepared them to return to their studies.

In such speeches, “They’re giving their opinion on what they believe the country needs,” she said. “But they’re looking for the same thing they’ve been looking for for hundreds of years — and that’s equality.”

Joe Robertson, The Star

Retirement community

A handful of the 500-plus residents at the Tallgrass Creek retirement community in Overland Park, 13800 Metcalf Ave., stopped by a second-floor clubhouse living room for an inaugural watch party. The staff had set out coffee and pastries on a banquet table decorated with tiny American flags. The living room’s couches and chairs were set up to view the event on a movie screen that descended from the ceiling.

Organizers thought maybe 20 would come, but only seven stopped by, and some of those didn’t stay.

“I’m not so sure many people really want to watch it, to tell the truth about it,” said Dee Berry, soon to be 91, who described Trump’s inauguration as “very, very sad.”

“I really am very, very worried about where this country is going,” she said.

In the 1980s, Berry was instrumental in organizing the Green Party in Missouri and worked for it nationally. Originally a Bernie Sanders supporter, she switched to supporting Hillary Clinton.

Her concern: “I’m very, very concerned about — how can I say this politically? — his tendency toward strong man rule. I think he has rather dangerous tendencies that way. It really frightens me.”

Any hope, Berry said, is in what she sees as a political awakening, the rise of oppositional and progressive voices during and since the election.

Those at Tallgrass surely in favor of Trump may have chosen to watch the 45th president’s inauguration in their rooms. The only ones who showed were those who did not back Trump’s candidacy and who looked on his inauguration as more than disappointing.

“It’s a historic day and I’ll be glad when it’s all over,” said Janie Jackson, 75. “I’m a Democrat and I didn’t vote for Trump, but I want to give him a chance to see how he will do.”

Some of her reasoning was deeply personal.

“I am also a gay woman married to a woman,” Jackson said. “And I want that to stay sacred.” She talked about her worries about the possible privatization of Social Security.

“I need everything to stay constant,” she said. “I don’t need somebody throwing out my bath water,” and then laughed, “with me in the bath.”

Phil Carr, 76, who described himself as a moderate Republican, said he also did not vote for Trump. “Absolutely not!” he said.

Glenn McCoy, 75, said he voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

“Today is a day of great concern for me,” he said and, in particular, he said he had questions about the election process, such as the role of Russian hacking. As the father of a gay son, he, too, said he shared similar concerns as Janie Jackson.

McCoy’s son, Scott Daniel McCoy, a Democrat, holds the distinction of being Utah’s first openly gay state senator, appointed in 2005.

Myron Sildon, 78, who wore an American flag T-shirt to watch the inauguration, said he also felt cautious. “I’m eager to find out what the direction of the country will be,” he said.

By the time Trump stood and took his oath, the large room was empty, but for Sildon and, standing at the back of the room, Tallgrass’s facilities manager, Ron Wilson, 61, who was a Trump supporter.

“I’m excited,” Wilson said, and said he was partly drawn to Trump in the belief that as president he would allow the United States to stand up economically and as an international power.

“I hope change will take place for the good of all the people,” Wilson said.

Eric Adler, The Star

Peace group

At All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City, a group of concerned citizens observed a moment of silence — a “moment of mourning” — at 11 a.m.

About 50 people gathered there Friday morning to hear a lineup of speakers talk about issues on which they think Trump is wrong: immigration, climate, Cabinet picks, policing, civil liberties, labor, health care and others.

Church member Sara Pedram was among those who spurned live coverage of the day’s event to hand out programs at All Souls, which billed the event as “After Shock: The Community Responds to the Trump Effects.”

Pedram said she voted for Hillary Clinton and had hoped to see the first female president elected.

“I would much rather be here, at this place, at this time, doing what I believe, rather than sitting at home watching the inauguration on TV, and maybe feeling sad.”

Henry Stoever, a coordinator of the event, which was co-sponsored by the local activist group PeaceWorks, said the group chose not to listen to the inauguration because members are so dismayed at Trump’s positions. Instead, they chose to invite speakers to deliver what Stoever called a more positive message.

Among the speakers was immigration attorney Angela Ferguson, who urged the audience to learn how to shoot video on their phones to document any immigration enforcement raids and related civil liberties abuses that could come under the Trump administration.

Another speaker, Fatima Mohammed, urged everyone, Muslim or otherwise, to stand up for civil liberties.

“We have to stick together,” Mohammed said, “in this horrendous sinking ship of an administration.”

Ian Cummings, The Star

Leavenworth spots

Since Herbert Hoover’s presidency, Homer’s Drive Inn has been operating on Fourth Street in this military community.

Six or eight everyday customers, mostly retirees and mostly men, gather at the narrow booths near the north door to discuss whatever is the going topic.

“Well, today’s the big day, isn’t it?” said Jim Chmidling, retired from construction and foundation work. “Yeah, sometimes we’ll talk politics … until someone gets hurt.”

Truth is, most of these buddies supported Trump in the general election. Like the white, working-class voters of other smallish U.S. towns, they sought someone who might upend Washington, “who doesn’t take any crap” even though some of his straight talk made some of these men cringe.

“You have to wait and see what he does. We don’t know that, but you’ve got to give him a try,” said John DiJoseph, a Vietnam veteran.

Said Clarence Wilber, 86: “I do sort of admire Trump for understanding the American people. He knew how to win.”

At Grinders High Noon in Leavenworth, north and around the bend from Homer’s, Trump was taking the oath just as the eatery opened.

Just the crew was there to watch on a TV above the bar. Mostly millennials, they withheld public comment.

“As a restaurant we have to stay on the fence,” said Nicole Crane, a manager.

There was talk of turning off the volume on the sets once customers arrived. But two of the first, Cody Williams and his boss, said nah, they wouldn’t mind listening over lunch.

“We just caught the last part of the speech” as the new president promised to make America great again, said Williams, an electrical apprentice from Olathe. “Sounded all right….

“I’d rather see Trump up there than Hillary. But I’d most rather see Bernie.”

Rick Montgomery, The Star

High school students

Trump the businessman didn’t seem to make any sales in an advanced placement government class at Center High School.

Shelby Bass, a junior, didn’t appreciate Trump’s take that students weren’t learning in American schools.

“That’s just not right,” she said. “I’m learning. We’re all learning. And I think the wall between here and Mexico is a really dumb idea.”

She paused.

“I just can’t get too excited about him.”

Kenny Pulce, a senior, thinks Trump’s posturing about American power could be bad for foreign policy.

“I think he could isolate us from the world, make us weaker and cause problems for our foreign partners,” he said.

Rhon-ya Crawford, also a junior, said the inaugural speech didn’t mean much anyway.

“We’ll learn what he really thinks later on Twitter,” she said. “That’s how we’ll find out what kind of president he’ll really be.”

Teacher Andy Hanch said the class had kept up with the campaign and election all fall. Most of the students, he said, tended to oppose Trump.

Donald Bradley, The Star

UMKC students

Taylor Shuck sat in front of a television at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Student Union, with a Barack Obama book in her lap and her phone tuned into a live stream of Trump’s speech.

Shuck, a graduate student at Baker University, was visiting her boyfriend at UMKC and didn’t want to miss hearing Trump speak.

“I think what he has to say today is important,” Shuck said. “I am not a fan but what happens today will show us where America is heading.”

Hunter Amend, a third-year UMKC law student, stared at the television too and listened on his phone.

“The country is definitely heading in a different direction,” said Amend, who also said he is not a Trump fan. “I think a lot of people feel helpless.”

Most of the students who milled around the UMKC Student Union ignored the televisions there that were all tuned to the inauguration. Instead many pulled up a live stream of the event on their phones or laptops.

“We have been hearing about this all year,” said Alicia Florez, a student at Alta Vista Charter high School and taking a class at UMKC.

Florez watched the event on her laptop. “It has kinda been like it is not real to me that Donald Trump is president,” she said. “I have to see it.”

Mará Rose Williams, The Star

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Trump inauguration: KC watches — or not — as era begins."