Wednesday, January 21, 2009

That Little Inauguration Thing I Missed Yesterday



I leave for a week, and y'all get a new President.

I got to watch a repeat of the ceremony on C-SPAN when I got back.  The heck with "America's Pastor," how about that slammin' great benediction from Joseph E. Lowery?
Dubya looked miserable through the whole thing, a huge rejection of his presidency and everything it stood for.
I was struck by the austerity of Obama's inauguration speech, a call to national renewal and common purpose, rather than a list of promises and lofty rhetoric.
I've never seen that kind of adulation before for an incoming President. In fact, I've not seen that kind of adulation since the Beatles last performed in Shea Stadium. A lot of the commentary is about heightened and impossible expectations, but I think that popularity could be a powerful tool for Obama to get his way with stubborn Republicans, and Democrats.

There were a lot of parties in Florence planned for that day by both Americans and Italians.  Gian Luigi, the aspiring Italian Episcopal seminarian that I met in Florence, spent an afternoon in the rectory trying to find +Gene Robinson's invocation at the Lincoln Memorial ceremony on international cable.  No success.

Could this be America's "Velvet Revolution," our "People Power" moment?   We shall have to see, and time will tell.

4 comments:

Leonard said...

WELCOME HOME! WE REDECORATED the place in your honor...it´s not a ¨place to stand¨ apart kinda place anymore...it´s a place to make space for EVERYONE grace!

I knew you´d love it. Funny, honest and straighforward good-will and wholesomeness takes NO GETTING USED TO!

I´m at home too!

it's margaret said...

welcome back!

June Butler said...

Could this be America's "Velvet Revolution," our "People Power" moment? We shall have to see, and time will tell.

I hope so, Doug. We'll have to lean hard on our congress critters, even the Dems, so they don't put up roadblocks.

Counterlight said...

Thanks all. It's good to be back.