Purple Tunnel Of Doom: Ticketed Inauguration Attendees Shut Out

I am glad this story is being told. People should know how we were treated. We got to the Purple ticket gate at 5am, there were already at least 500 people in front of us. Then at 10:30 (yes, 5 and a half hours of standing in 20 degree weather later) we found out that they were not going to open the Purple Gate. Period. But the 'gatekeepers' knew this information at 9:30. So we wasted an hour of precious time that we could have made our way to another gate or to the non-ticketed area to at least watch it on the jumbotrons. We were denied that opportunity. We did everything right, just the way we were instructed to and got slapped in the face for it. People standing near us came in from Alaska and California were heartbroken. We left the Purple Gate that day with bittersweet emotions.We were so proud of the historic event taking place inside that gate but we were stricken with the severe disappointment of coming so far to be denied access.

My family had the same experience at the Blue Standing gate. There in plenty of time, they were not told access would be denied. Instead they waited hopefully, all to end in not seeing anything and having a very tearful 8 year old on their hands who had campaigned with his mom for Obama.