The Hand on My Shoulder

A Secret Service agent, a blue lapel pin, and the images I almost didn't take

Absorbed in the moment, I suddenly felt a hand on my right shoulder, my camera arm. As I lifted the camera slightly, the fingers dug in a little tighter. I relaxed and leaned away from my subject. I never turned around, never looked for the hand, or acknowledged the Secret Service agent standing right behind me.

President Bill Clinton hosting one-on-one questions after a Town Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 5, 1994.

President Clinton was in Charlotte for a Town Hall on April 5, 1994. NBC News had contracted me to photograph the event for their internal use. Separate from the media coverage. Two weeks earlier, I had sent in my identification awaiting security clearance. Upon arriving, the security desk handed me a small blue lapel pin, a medium blue tone, about a half inch in diameter. For a moment, I held it like an award, before slipping the pin through my jacket.

The media photographers were arranged in a gallery area. Essentially all with the same angle of the event. My NBC contact, one of the producers, in tow with a Secret Service agent, came up to me and whispered in my ear “Ron, you can go wherever you want, you have clearance” as the Secret Service guy nodded. I started wandering around, documenting the set-up and the NBC crew.

President Clinton talking at a Town Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 5, 1994.

About forty-five minutes into the Town Hall, I looked over at the photographer gallery. Empty. I felt alone and my stomach knotted thinking I had done something wrong. Did they have deadlines? I thought to myself. Did I need to leave? I found my producer and asked “Do I need to stop shooting or leave?” Quickly, in the same hushed tone, she said “No, you’re with us. Stay until the end.”

With the Secret Service watching carefully, President Clinton engages the audience one-on-on at a Town Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 5, 1994.

Within a half hour, the official Town Hall ended and President Clinton started to walk out, down past the bleachers still filled with the audience. People started asking more questions, one-on-one. While the President was less than one hundred feet from the door, he stopped to answer every question, never rushed, moving that one hundred feet took another hour. He looked people in the eye, listening to their concerns. He could have left and already been on Air Force One, but he was here with his constituents, listening to every word.

President Clinton leaving a Town Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina.

My last glimpse of the President was stepping into the limousine, still talking to people. The April evening smelled fresh, and just a little different.