SCOTT SIMON, host:
Time now for your letters.
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SIMON: You've done it again this morning. I laughed, I cried. So writes Emily Mazer(ph) of Tucson, Arizona. I got a little misty hearing all the inauguration interviews. I remember watching John Kennedy's inauguration at the age of eight. I brought all my dolls into our TV room to watch the momentous occasion. I was lucky to be at home because we got a snow day in Long Branch, New Jersey. There was snow in Washington that day as well. I only hope the memories of Barack Obama's inauguration loom large in another eight-year-old on Tuesday.
Now, regarding our interview with teenage video bloggers who traveled from Colorado to Washington for the inauguration, Susy Malia(ph) of Portland, Oregon, wrote in with a subject line, pardon me, sir, but your generation gap is showing. Thank you Weekend Edition for featuring youth activists Alyssa Roberts and Olivia Rudeen, she writes. And shame on you, Scott Simon, for letting your surprise sound so patronizing. The teenagers whose political experience and involvement you laughingly questioned appeared to have shown more get out the vote initiative than most people twice and three times their age. I appreciate your nod to these new voters and hope you'll treat others with due respect. We'll be relying on their political and financial resources sooner than we expect.
Now, speaking of Alyssa and Olivia, you may have heard in NPR's coverage of the inauguration that more than 5,000 ticket holders outside the security gates were denied entry to the National Mall.
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Ms. ALYSSA ROBERTS (Teenage Blogger): So here's what happened. Each of these grains of rice represents one person. We have the certain metro stop we're supposed to get off of right here because we have purple tickets. So we get off, like we're supposed to, and then there's a spot we have to go to get in line, about hereish. But we get there, and there's this huge line of people with purple tickets. It was really, really sad.
SIMON: That's Alyssa Roberts on our video blog using a diagram of rice grains to demonstrate what she and Olivia went through. The inaugural committee later apologized to those who didn't get in. But we're happy to report that Alyssa and Olivia made it in after the initial snarl and got to the ceremony just in time to hear President Obama take the oath of office. You can see Alyssa and Olivia's latest video on our blog, npr.org/soapbox. We welcome your comments. Just come to our Web site npr.org, click on "Contact Us," and please tell us where you live and how to say your name.