Inaugural Parade

I WOULD LIKE to bring today's meeting of TJI readers to order. We'll forgo the reading of the minutes and the usual sing-along and get right to new business. First, some good news: Baltimore's Marching Ravens, the band formerly known as the Colts Marching Band, will for the first time strut in the presidential inaugural parade next week in our nation's capital. Please put your hands together for band president John Ziemann. "Thank you ... and that's right. The band will be marching in the inaugural parade Jan. 20. The Modell family [owners of the Ravens]

Baltimore, a city that exploded in anger and riots after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 33 years ago, celebrated the slain civil rights leader's birthday yesterday with a joyous parade down the boulevard named in his honor. The inaugural parade - an affair that included high school bands, hip-hop dancers and robed choral groups - is likely to mark the start of a tradition that many in the crowd said was too long in coming. Along the parade route, residents talked about King, the social changes for which he died and the long road still ahead.

Black-on-black violence must be condemnedIn 1964, the late civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, coined the famous phrase, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." As a proud and involved African-American male, I must echo the sentiments Ms. Hamer expressed in her struggles during the '60s civil rights movement.I am sick and tired of reading about the killing of our sweet, young and innocent children at the hands of uncaring black men who conduct their drug wars and turf battles at anytime and anyplace without regard to others who may be in their presence.

WASHINGTON -- All through inaugural week, there is the quie sound of Washington's special interests at work, clinking glasses with the powers that be and toasting the new administration.Bill Clinton and his new team may have condemned Washington's culture of easy access for big companies and powerful interests, but those same groups are now throwing dozens of receptions and parties for his inauguration, luring what they hope are VIPs from every corner of this city."RJR Nabisco requests the pleasure of your company for an inaugural reception," reads the invitation the tobacco giant recently sent to members of Congress, lobbyists and others.

The Sounds of Silence choir from Canton, Ohio, put good manners ahead of the political pecking order when it stopped by the governor's mansion for lunch yesterday.This group of mentally retarded and developmentally disabled young adults had turned down an appointment with the week's top celebrity, President Clinton, to meet with Hilda Mae Snoops and William Donald Schaefer."They wanted us when no one else did," Pat Fehlman, the group's communications director, explained as the 22 choir members and about 40 of their parents, friends and other organizers filed out of their bus on State Circle.

WASHINGTON -- A small number of tickets for seats at the Inauguration Day parade will go on sale today and a lottery will be used to distribute tickets to an White House open house given by Bill and Hillary Clinton, inaugural planners said yesterday.Demand for tickets to both events is expected to far exceed supply.About 6,000 parade seats are being set aside for the general public, far fewer than the number made available four years ago at President Bush's inauguration. Most of the 40,000 spaces on the bleachers that will line the parade route will go to friends and supporters of Mr. Clinton along with Democratic Party VIPs.

Crystal Bridge, a 7-year-old horse from Severn, suspect something big is up. Owner Marie Daniels is sure of it.Marie, 16, has scrubbed and brushed her thoroughbred, fitted him with new shoes, washed his tail and clipped his whiskers. Today she'll braid his mane.Tomorrow, Crystal Bridge goes to Washington, to strut his stuff at the 1993 inaugural parade."He was excited when they put on his shoes," said Marie, an Archbishop Spalding High School junior. "He was jigging around. He wouldn't walk quietly.

Twenty-two members of a Rhode Island high school band that marched in President Clinton's Inauguration Day parade were hospitalized in Baltimore County last night when they became sick. None of the students -- seven boys and 15 girls -- is seriously ill. All were expected to be well enough to leave today for home.At least one adult supervisor also was ill, but he was treated by an ambulance crew at the Marriott Hotel at Hunt Valley where the group was staying.Ronald Flood, security chief at the Marriott Hotel, said 84 band members from Westerly High School in Westerly, R.I., and 14 adult supervisors left the hotel early yesterday morning in three tour buses bound for Washington.

They've played for the queen. They've played for four presidents. And Monday, the "Mighty Sound of Maryland" will add President Barack Obama to their list of famous fans. Led by the sounds of booming drum lines and trombones, the University of Maryland marching band will serenade Pennsylvania Avenue during the 57th Inaugural Presidential Parade. The band is one of 60 acts chosen to perform from a pool of more than 2,800 applicants. L. Richmond Sparks, associate professor, conducting and director of bands, says he submitted video and audio tapes of the band during the application.

Meet Zoltan. He doesn't know it yet, but he's about to be famous (well, more famous than right now, anyway). Zoltan is an 11-month old Labrador-Golden Retriever mix who's being raised to be a service dog by Baltimore's JoAnn Rogers and her family. And on Monday, he'll lead the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade (we knew him when!). "Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) was chosen from more than 2,800 applicants to march in the parade," says Rogers, who has raised Zoltan since he was eight weeks old. He'll stay with the family until November, when he'll be returned to CCI to finish his training and go live with someone who needs him for assistance.