A narrow view of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama - Part 3 of 3: The new president is sworn in; how the people near me reacted
Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 9:09PM "That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age." - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States
To the sounds of "trumpet and fanfare," President Elect Barack Obama arrived at the Capitol building as his image appeared on the nearby Jumbotron. He looked confident and proud. The applause was loud, the shouts joyous, the people waved American flags with enthusiasm.
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met."
;)
And there was pride - a kind of pride that many in the crowd had never felt before, had not believed they would ever feel, but now they did feel it.
Perhaps the "majority" of us cannot fully comprehend the degree of the pride that radiated from the faces of so many of the African Americans who were present, but we can recognize it, celebrate it, rejoice in it.
I, as a white American, also felt a kind of pride that I had never before experienced, pride in the fact that the country that I now lived in had become a better nation then the one that I had grown up in. The notion that such an event could ever happen could not have even been believed in the United States of my childhood.
No, I am wrong to make the above statement. At least one man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed it.
Despite the almost universal acclaim given him today, I recall the attitudes toward Dr. King that prevailed in the community that surrounded me back then and that attitude was mean and derisive - and no, I did not live in the south. I lived in California.
I recall, too, how, in my community, Dr. King was mocked and ridiculed, deemed to be a dangerous man, a Communist, out to destroy America, after he spoke these words:
"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
Much later, I listened to the those words and was suddenly struck by meaning that had eluded me in my youth. When Dr. King spoke of how "we" would be "free at last," he had included me, a white man who had already believed himself to be free, but who was actually bound and restrained by the limitations that a racist society imposes upon itself.
Now, on the National Mall, I recalled other images from my youth and early adulthood, images of Black Americans turning their back on the flag to raise their clenched fists in the opposite direction.
Here, I saw them clutch the American flag with pride, I saw them wave the American flag as they cheered and smiled big, I saw tears come to their eyes as they embraced that flag. There seemed to be a feeling that, finally, that flag had embraced them.
"Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."
;)
;)
President-Elect Obama had created a controversy among many of his most dedicated followers and volunteers when he chose the Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the Inaugural address. When Warren, known for his anti-gay comments, stepped to the podium, the reception seemed polite but cool.
;)
Yet, when he began to pray, people around me began to cry. They could not stop their tears, particularly when Warren spoke these words:
"Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
"We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.
"And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven... Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all."
""For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops, and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip, and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy and Khe Sahn."
When Itzhak Perlman and Yoyo Ma began to play the violin and chello, I did wonder not only how they were able to manipulate their fingers in the cold, but also how they kept their stringed instruments in tune.
It seemed impossible, yet the thought that they were bow syncing to a recording of themselves did not occur to me.
Some were upset about the "fakery" when the news came out that what we actually heard was a recording the team of Perlman, Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill had made the day before. The news did not bother me. These virtuosos had faced a choice - do what they did or risk a clumsy, out-of-tune performance. How much criticism would that have brought down upon them?
"We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week, or last month, or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."
;)
As an enthusiastic crowd cheers, waves the American flag and throws confetti, Barack and Michelle Obama walk together toward the swearing-in. Blogger's note, 2/4/09: This replaces a similar photo taken a short time later that went up with the original post Please note that a "click" on any photo will bring up a larger copy.
"For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of our economy calls for action, bold and swift. And we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together."
;)
I will let her expression describe her feelings as she watches Barack Obama prepare to be sworn in as President of the United States.
;)
Joy.
All around me, I could detect only happiness, joy and a true feeling of hope, unity, sisterhood and brotherhood between groups of people so divergent in bloodline, origin, culture and nurture.
"We'll restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do."
;)
After placing his hand upon the Bible of Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Please note the men perched on the building behind, including the ones with the scopes.
;)
And note the trails from the jets that continually circled above.
More pride.
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man -- a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience sake."
President Obama speaks. "These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights."
;)
In whatever direction I looked, I saw happy faces...
;)
...enraptured faces...
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...and the transformed smiles of those who had suddenly forgotten how cold they had felt through the long, short, hours that they had endured after arising at 3:00 AM to come down and stand immobile in the frigid air.
"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."
;)
And then there was my own daughter, Lisa, who, as an Obama volunteer, had worked so hard to get this man elected. She had done so even though she knew that no matter what she and the other Alaska volunteers did, there was no chance that Barack Obama would receive our state's three electoral votes.
Still, she could make a statement that there is much diversity in the minds of Alaskans, that we do not all think the same nor fall inline with one way of thinking, that even on Main Street, Wasilla, Alaska, there is room for divergent thought and viewpoint among genuine, real, patriotic Americans.
Now, as she listened to the man whom she had worked so hard to elect speak, she got her payoff. And when she heard him say these words, "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth," she felt the reward of her hard work. It was the first time that she had heard a President make a statement about who just who the American people really are that did not exclude, but rather did include her.
;)
President Barack Obama speaks from a position directly in front of us, yet we can identify him only on the Jumbotron.
"We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense. And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken -- you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."
;)
The speech concludes. The new President takes his seat. Lisa joins in the applause. She is the whole reason that we came. She was so thrilled when Barack Obama won the election that she immediately bought herself a round-trip ticket to New York City (Washington, DC, was too expensive) so that she could attend the inaugural. She did not have funds for a hotel, so she thought she would just camp out.
Margie and I had planned to take a vacation at this time, to go to Utah and Arizona, so that we could see family, and Margie could warm herself in the southwest sun and enjoy the winter daylight that Alaska lacks.
Instead, we decided to change our itinerary a bit, and so accompanied Lisa to the Inauguration.
"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
;)
The ceremony ended, but the warm, euphoric feelings continued. Soon, of course, those feelings will be tempered by the enormity of the task that our new president faces. He will come under fire, and much of it will be directed towards him from those most responsible for creating the perilous situation that our country now faces. In fact, that fire has already begun.
I made a phone call from the Lincoln Memorial to a hard-right conservative who is most beloved to me. He brought up the fact that even as Obama was in the process of taking over the Presidency, jobs were being lost daily, by the tens of thousands. "They're calling it the Obama effect," he told me. He was quite serious, and, despite the last eight years, believed his own words.
I saw the true Obama effect, and I hope that you can see it in the pictures above, in the faces of those who attended the Inaugural.
Later, he told me that Obama had signed an executive order that meant the United States was now going to be paying for abortions. He said this in such a way as to imply that the government would be paying for abortions across the board, throughout the Country. In fact, what Obama had signed was an order that lifted the Bush ban on US aid to international family planning organizations with services that include advice or help to women who seek abortions - a very different matter.
So these are the kinds of distortions and obstacles that will be thrown at our new President as he works to lead us out of the mess that we are in.
True, as the situation grows worse, I suspect that even many who now cheer him will grow impatient and will issue their own harsh criticisms of the man they helped elect. Perhaps I will, myself.
Obviously, none of us can yet know how well our new President will handle the many crisis that he inherited and he will undoubtedly make some bad mistakes. For this, he will be loudly condemned.
Yet, it is my personal belief that, right now, the United States of America is in need of a leader the likes of which we have not seen at least since World War II. A great leader. As Colin Powell said, a transformational leader. One who can not only inspire us but convince us to make the kinds of sacrifice that we modern day Americans do not like to make.
Considering the challenges, without such a leader, it seems unlikely that United States will continue as the great power that it has been since World War II. Looking at all of our national leaders, in all parties, I do not see the potential of such a leader except in one individual: our new President, Barack Obama. I do believe he has that potential. Whether the potential will be fulfilled, I do not know.
I wonder what I can do to help him succeed?
I suppose I could begin by finding a way to rapidly pay off the new credit card debt that I added to the old, just to travel to Washington, DC and back. This would mean I would have to put off some immediate gratification in order to help bring about a more prosperous future. I like that immediate gratification. I would like to think that I can now indulge in it, and let the future take care of itself.
Hmmmm.....
A click here will take you to the full text and video of President Obama's speech.
Reader Comments (5)
Let's hope my hubby and I win the America Lottery will play. America sounds like a palce to escape to for a while.
I am glad you made the inauguration. Thansk for sharing a lot of what went on with us. Especially with the pictures...
Abortion is not legalised in Nigeria, in fact, if any govt tries it, I wonder what it will lead to
Thank you for your personal view of the inauguration. we watched it live streaming over the internet - it started at 7 am here, which is a bit early for me, but i got up and watched anyway. I allowed myself to yield to the sponatneous feelings of hope, faith, and trust that arose inside me. I have been so cynical for the last 8 years - it's time to let the positive feelings have a chance. Cynicism is always there if/when i need it again.
Best wishes to Margie for swift healing.
It's that feeling of inclusion that brings tears to my eyes. Inclusion as a white Alaskan and inclusion as a nation that's finally grown up. Thank you for your beautiful photos of the faces around you that fine day!
You made me cry all over again and I was there!! Thank you for your beautiful post!
Hi Bill,
Wow...I enjoyed your story.....I never noticed the circling patterns in the sky-even tho our dance group WAS THERE too! That is awesome! Looking forward to the next Uiniq...thanks. Happy April! arlene