Yesterday's frivolous blog post notwithstanding, I was deeply moved by the inauguration and all that it portends. I found myself in tears throughout the day, and I welled up again this morning when I read this New York Times article about Barack Obama's amazing extended family.
A few reflections, and then I must turn to a small mountain of work and turn the comments over to you.
As you probably know, I'm a big fan of San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll. He followed the inauguration and devoted today's column to it. Among the passages that jumped out at me:
It is one of Obama's great strengths, I think, that he is also aware of the savagery that this country has produced, and he chooses not to dwell on it. What he is dealing with is too vast for malicious dealing. This is likely to irritate a lot of people, because politics is a blood sport, and we like to see our enemies confounded and shamed.
When I heard Elizabeth Alexander read her inaugural poem, I admired her delivery but was disappointed by what struck me as its flat prosiness. (I wasn't alone.) But I find I'm enjoying reading it on the page.
ReadWriteWeb has created word clouds of Obama's Inaugural speech and of those of several of his predecessors, including Abraham Lincoln.
Here's what I heard in the speech, with its call for responsibility, individual and shared: echoes of a first-century Babylonian Jewish teacher, Rabbi Hillel. Now, I am not a religious person—in fact, I was thrilled that Obama acknowledged us nonbelievers in his address, a first for presidential speeches, I think. But you don't have to believe in a deity to live by Hillel's credo, which, like much Jewish dialogue, consists of a series of questions:
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
And if not now, when?
I am still teary today myself and wept over the same NYT article on Obama's extended family. Thank-you for the Hillel quote, it is perfect.
Posted by: Tay | January 21, 2009 at 05:23 PM
Agree with the Alexander reflection. Poem is Walt Whitman-ish, and it reads better on paper. Her delivery was too deliberate.
Posted by: Christa Allan | January 21, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Why we cry.
Read: Deborah Kenny: Harlem Village Academies 7th graders Blog the Inauguration
Posted by: Nick | January 22, 2009 at 01:15 AM
The Hillel quote is so very apt, and I loved JC's column as well.
Several of my friends were heartened by the non-believer shout-out during a ceremony that was larded with prayers and "God-blesses," and I thought, "YES. This is the example which all of us should learn to follow." Making room for other points of view, acting with actual affection and not mere tolerance. Lovely. Thanks for the NYT link.
Posted by: TadMack | January 22, 2009 at 02:11 AM
Before you declare the nightmare to be over and start shedding tears of happiness again, just a reminder that peace has not broken out, the world in NOT about to start loving us (as is clear to anyone who has truly experienced the world outside the Bay Area), and the New Era is new only in the lore of the Left:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSlVaxfZlA
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/01/23/pakistan.missile/
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/01/transparency-and-the-obama-whi.html
http://thelizardannex.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-transparancy-joke.html
WWLDIBHDI (what would libs do if Bush had done it?)
Cheers,
J
Posted by: Jan Muzykant | January 26, 2009 at 10:29 AM
@Jan, you've already left this comment once. That was sufficient. Please move along to a political blog--Fritinancy is about naming and branding.
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | January 26, 2009 at 10:36 AM