I'm a local girl, born and raised in Kailua, but I now live in Washington, D.C. I was lucky enough to have gotten a Blue Ticket for President Barack Obama's inauguration from Sen. Dan Akaka's office.

I arrived many hours before the beginning of the ceremony, and two hours before the opening of the gate. I arrived to no clear line-definitions and thousands of people just guessing as to what line was where, and if there even was an end to a line. No markers were placed, no signs were up, no attendants were there to help answer questions and direct lines. It was chaotic. You would think there would be people there to direct lines and answer question. You'd also think there would be signs letting us know where exactly we were going.

Nope, nothing.

For hours, thousands of us stood there moving perhaps five feet every 30 minutes. Phone calls were made to the Capitol police, and we were told to “;just be patient,”; the gates were not going to be closed and we would get in. We had no idea how long it might take because we couldn't see where the line started or ended!

At around 11:30 a.m. there was a break in the line. We all hoped that this was an expedited system by the Capitol police to get all of us ticketed persons into our area before Obama's speech. This, however, was not the case. We went from one massive line to one massive mob. There was no line, there was no organization. Again, no personnel to ask or to help. People ended up just all moving toward the Blue Ticket entrance. People were being crushed up against barricades. Chants of “;What's going on?”; and “;Let us in!”; were common.

After many stressful minutes crammed up against everyone else with no one knowing where to go or what to do, I had to exit the line. Some people were saying the gates were closed, some were trying to direct us, others were just screaming that they were being pushed up against barricades.

Through all these hours in “;line”; I did not see one person to help direct and organize things. There was no form of information, there was no help whatsoever. The lost were leading the lost.

For an event that was supposed to have top-of-the-line organization and security, I am extremely disappointed in the way that ticketed people were abandoned and ultimately, after not answering any questions or attempting to inform us in anyway, locked out. I was so excited to have gotten a ticket, and I had such high hopes for my experience of the inauguration. I ended up being in a mob with a thousand other people for the first 90 percent of it, and then running to an open fence to peak in and see a small corner of the Capitol for Obama's speech (the highlight of the day!).

I am appalled at how poor the organization was. I feel like this opportunity that I was so excited to have was ripped from my hands by those who were in charge of planning, those who did an horrible job.

I know none of this is Akaka's fault. Most of the blame I feel belongs to the Capitol police, who were very unhelpful and extremely short-staffed for our purposes.

I hope that the next official event I attend has a vastly improved system for security screenings and crowd control. Today I am very happy that the inauguration took place, but extremely upset that I was not given the viewing opportunity I was promised by being given a ticket.

I'm sure that lots of other people from the islands left disappointed with what happened, and it breaks my heart more to know how far many traveled for that one event. I hope that some form of apology can be given to all of us who had our hopes dashed.