Purple Tunnel People Sing “Lean On Me”
Witness the amazing moment when thousands of strangers stuck in a tunnel chose to support each other by singing “Lean On Me”. There has been a lot of upsetting news around the world lately. Protests and riots, and destruction can make us feel that large groups of people are something to be feared.
This isn’t always so. All the way back in 2009, Barack Obama was about to be inaugurated as the first African American man to become President of the United States.
Unsurprisingly the crowds that formed to see this historical event were massive. The tickets sold out immediately, but on the day, thousands of people without tickets turned up anyway. Unfortunately, this meant thousands of people with purple tickets missed out on the event altogether.
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Police directed the crowd into what came to be known as “The Purple Tunnel Of Doom”. Thousands of people patiently queued in freezing temperatures under Washington’s National Mall. However, despite having tickets and following the directions of the police officers, many queued for hours but did not make it out in time to see the inauguration.
In this kind of situation, queuing for hours in a freezing tunnel, missing an unprecedented event that everyone there had tickets for, and literally being trapped with thousands of others, the mood of the crowd could easily have turned. Panic, anger and chaos could have reigned. People could have been hurt, and news reports may have reported a disaster that overshadowed the swearing-in of Barack Obama.
That was not to be, though. Instead, the thousands-strong crowd began to sing the Bill Withers song “Lean On Me”. This beautiful song echoed off the tunnel’s walls and helped calm and uplift everyone waiting there. As it became clear to everyone that they would not make it out in time, they celebrated Obama’s victory on their own. They banded together with a shared sense of camaraderie and unity that is beautiful to watch. If you need a video to lift your mood and restore your faith in humanity today, check it out here.