8:44 a.m.
I am in the library at COCC watching the inauguration with a cluster of colleagues. Barack H. Obama has just entered the scene on NBC. I am listening to my colleagues chat.
"I hear he was reading Thomas Jefferson when he was a little boy."
Feinstein speaking. She has a nice big burgundy wool coat. (One remembers her holding the head of her dying colleague in her lap in San Francisco so many years ago.) "The dream that echoed across history finally echoes from the walls of the White House." (not exact quote)
Rick Warren. He's plump with a blue shirt and tie. Everything is God's. "Hear oh Israel." "A hinge point of history." "Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses." Nice use of parallelism which I'll find and quote later. Now he is praying the "Our Father."
According to The West Wing the men don't get to wear great coats. They are stuck wearing heavy suit coats. I'll have to take a look. Nope -- they are wearing well-tailored long coats.
Aretha Franklin in a very lovely church hat with a big gray bow sparkling with crystals or diamonds. "Look at that hat," says a woman in the room. A librarian just entered with her two kids. There are about 10 people in the room. NBC's director of this event is showing lots of audience members (who look very cold) and lots of flags. Now we've cut to Los Angeles where there's a crowd watching outside on some big projection unit. Aretha is doing a great job with My Country 'Tis of Thee. (A song that she is giving a really beautiful jazz interpretation).
John Paul Stevens is now giving the oath to Joseph Biden. Biden wishes he had dark glasses. Ah, and he IS wearing a great coat! He looks relatively warm. There's that giant smile. They shake hands. The Justice has his robes over what looks like a lot of clothing.
Now, WOW, a six star quartet of numbers arranged by John Williams that includes Yo-Yo Ma and Itzak Perelman. The VP elect and Pres elect were just shown turning around backwards, craning their necks to see the musicians. A gift to be simple that one person here said was Dvorak. I said "No, it's a Shaker hymn that Dvorak stole."
BHB being sworn in with the "so help me God" that some dude didn't want him to use. Michelle giving him a Jackie Kennedy smile. He's president now. Someone says, "Isn't that his biggest job to preserve and protect the Constitution?" With the implication that the outgoing president, now the EX-President, did not do so.
The speech
"My fellow citizens. I stand here today humbled by the task before us." Good start and warning.
Thanks the ex pres for cooperation.
"Gathering clouds and raging storms" Weather metaphor to call upon us in a time of crisis. It's hard for us to make hard choices. "Sapping of confidence....a sagging fear that America's decline is inevitable." He promises our challenges will be met.
Didn't Bush also say that we would work together? We'll see if Obama can do it.
"Greatness is never a given, it must be earned....Not a path for the faint hearted." He calls on ournational spirit of risk taking, doing, etc. "For us they packed up ... For us they endured... For us they fought and died." History. Hard work. Worked till hands raw. America bigger than our differences.
Hat in the audience -- "Tuskegee Airman" Couple old black dudes wearing the sign of our past.
"Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off . . ." song quote.
"We will restore science to it's natural place." He talks about infrastructure building. Some who question our ability. Their memories are short. The ground has shifted beneath them. Stale political arguments no longer apply. We don't ask how big government is but whether or not it can do the job. He likes the Market but warns it can "spin out of control"
"Willingness to extend opportunity" for common good. "A charter to ensure the rule of law and the rights of man." We will not give up constitution for expedience sake. "We are ready to lead once more." "America a friend to all" who value peace and dignity.
Once again, he calls on history. Promises for security. To the terrorists, "You cannot outlast us and we will defeat you."
"Our patchwork heritage." "We cannot help but believe that our old hatreds will pass."
"We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
NBC had the script of the speech I know because when he's mentioning Americans in far off lands they cut to a camp in Baghdad where folks in desert camo are watching the speech.
"Honesty, hard work, ...., loyalty, patriotism" "These things are old, these things are true. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility."
Appeals to George Washington at Valley Forge. "Hope and virtue."
Colleague: "I'm glad he showed that fierceness. He was serious and fierce."
Now the poet, Elizabeth Alexander. In Reagan red with that bushy hair. "Praise song for the Day." Oh my gosh. She's not a good reader. She's not relaxed. A list of ordinary things, ordinary activities. Certainly a people's poem. "Say it plain, that many have died for this day."
Bearded, scruffy guy sitting on the floor: "Wow, you could write a book critiquing that. . . "
Final benediction by a man from the civil rights trenches. A prayer as rhymed poem. Asking for prayers for Obama. "We pray for not only our nation but by the community of nations."
Now there are 15 people in the room.
"We have sewn the seed of greed and corruption and reaped the whirlwind . . ." "We must turn to each other and not on each other." More parallelism. Look forward to time of peace. "when tanks shall be beaten into tractors." Ends with humor. "A time when black won't go back, brown can still around, yellow can be mellow, a red man can get ahead man."
I stood for the Star Spangled Banner, as did a couple of other folks. Much laughter in this room as NBC cameras lit on a girl in Times Square who screamed on seeing herself on television.
I may blog more deeply later on. But my initial reaction is, good speech, sufficient for the temper of our times.
No comments:
Post a Comment