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Easter Egg Roll Controversy
Posted by timethief • 3/28/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: easter egg roll, michelle obama, online-tickets, south lawn, us, White House
The original site of the Easter Monday Egg Roll was the grounds of the United States Capitol. The first egg rolls, largely family affairs, seem to have been held during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. However, The egg roll activity of 1876 took its toll on the grounds, a fact that did not go unnoticed by members of Congress. With an already inadequate budget to complete the landscaping and maintenance of the grounds, Congress passed a law forbidding the Capitol grounds to be used as a children's playground.
In 1878 President Rutherford B. Hayes, taking his daily walk, was approached by a number of young egg rollers who inquired about the possibilities of egg rolling on the South Lawn of the White House. He liked the idea and he and his wife, Lucy, officially opened the White House grounds to the children of the area for egg rolling that Easter Monday. Successive Presidents continued the tradition, and the Easter Egg Roll event has been held on the South Lawn of the White House ever since.
Presidents and First Ladies have personally greeted the egg rollers as have members of the Cabinet, athletes, musicians, celebrities from film, television, and theater and the official White House Easter Bunny. At the end of the day as egg rollers say goodbye, each receives a special presidential wooden egg complete with the signatures of the President and the First Lady and departs with fond memories of this happy tradition at the White House.
Huge lines would form Easter Sunday and into the next morning as people waited for tickets to be distributed first-come, first-served basis on the day of the event. In recent years, most people wanting to get the free tickets for this event stood in line, often for hours the Saturday before the egg roll and some even camped out over night.
This year the White House moved the ticket distribution online, replacing the traditional "first come, first served'' method that led many to stand in line all night on the Ellipse the weekend before the roll. However, Michelle Obama wanted to make the White House more accessible to a broader cross section of people across the nation, so at first blush letting folks from out-of town be able to get tickets in advance for the egg roll online seemed noncontroversial.
Well, the switch to online distribution commencing yesterday resulted in tickets being snatched up by people in 41 states and by 7:45 PM the Web site said all tickets were gone. The complaints began surfacing early yesterday, shortly after the tickets became available and now there are several news services that have published stories about this change.
Discussion Questions:
(1) Do you think that the camp out on the lawn to get a ticket under the first come - first serve system was a better one? If so, please state your reasons.
(2) Or do you think the online tickets is a better distribution system? If so, please state your reasons.
User Comments
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Neither form of distribution will allow everyone who wants to attend to attend.
In this day and age I find it a bit disingenuous that anyone is shocked about the speed in which the tickets were bought. In the age where tickets for concerts sell out in hours or mere minutes for some concerts - the truth of the matter is, you're either quick, or you're not going.
Edited to add - I do think that at the very least, the online ticket distribution gives families plenty of time to know whetehr or not they will be attending the function, and if not, they have time to make other plans, rather than be turned away on Easter, disappointed.-
I was amazed that the media even bothered to pick up the complaints and run stories on them. However, I suppose that's naive as anything that has the Obama name attached to it will be considered "newsworthy".
People camping on the White House lawn isn't IMO desirable. Also the be there in person aspect leaves the vast majority right out of the picture. So I also think the online ticket distribution system is the way to go. -
We also have an easter egg roll and an easter egg hunt for kids that takes place every year in a park and it's great fun.
If you are interested in reading a brief history of the derivation of Easter traditions and development of the holiday dating back to ancient Babylon then click this link
thistimethisspace.com/2009/03/25/easter-and-spring-equinox-greetings/
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Here I thought it would be a controversial recipe for egg rolls - that someone was serving Chinese food for a Christian holiday.
(In other words, I couldn't think of anything to add to Anok's evaluation except, "Ditto.")-
LOL
COntroversal recipes - hey, we could start a cookbook! -
That could be fun ... lol Hmmm ... where will we find controversial and politically incorrect recipes? (She heads for the recipe books on the book shelf.)
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I noticed that activity seemed to have picked up under Grant--our first christianist president. -
I doubt the online ticket distribution is going to workout because ticket scalpers are going to come into play.-
becthomasphotograp
The tickets went on sale nine days ago at 6 PM and were sold out by 7:45 PM. -
Sold out by who? The company that got the tickets from the Whitehouse or by the ticket scalpers that got a bunch of them and are selling them for inflated prices?
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Who knows?
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with security since 911 you couldn't camp out on the lawn let alone a block away -
Stupid me! I had no idea this event was something that tickets were handed out for. All these years I thought the families attending this event were the President's family and other high-up politician's families.-
Well, I admit to sharing your stupidity then because I thought the same thing too until I did some research.
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Do you make jelly rolls at Easter? We do. I should check out your blog for recipes. My favorite is chocolate cake with marshmallow.
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