It was a cold, sunny day in the midwest today, just as crisp and bright as that in Washington.
Between work tasks, I listened to the press coverage of the inauguration on NPR; read blogging updates on NYTimes.com; stole glances at CNN-Facebook internet video streaming; and caught some PBS coverage on T.V. I was struck by the amount of people in the crowd holding up cell phones and taking pictures. This day was not only remarkable for the historic significance of the first person of mixed racial heritage becoming President of the United States of America, but also because of the widening participation of citizens of the world through the wonders of advanced technology. It was (almost) like being there! The Facebook streaming included live comments by its members, most just as overjoyed as I was to be witnessing the passing of the helm in such a dramatically immediate way.
What excites me most about the new Obama presidency is this sense of passionate participation among so many who have expressed disenchantment with the political process in the past. It truly feels like a "gathering of the tribes," so wonderfully captured with humor by Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery near the end of the ceremony today, calling for a new day "when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white would embrace what is right.” I do not recall, in my lifetime, speaking with so many people who wanted to BE THERE--whether it was in Grant Park for the acceptance speech last November, or on the mall in D.C. today. People feel compelled, drawn...driven to be present...to witness this incredible day on a very personal level.
It reminds me a bit of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When I was in my mid-twenties, traveling through western Europe by train, the wall came down, and it seemed like everyone was heading there to see it collapse into a pile of rubble. This day feels, to me, like one of those days. The creators of the Berlin Wall built it not only to contain people, but to limit ideas. Years later, the will of the people brought that wall down and opened the world for a new generation of dreamers. People, historical events, and conditions in this country have created real obstacles...walls...for people of color, for women, and for people in poverty. Yet, today, we bear witness to another achievement of the will of the people. Barack Obama's inauguration represents the destruction of another ugly, divisive wall. And, oh, does the light shine bright and true without its shadow!
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I'm surprised you liked the comments by Rev. Lowery. "When white would embrace what's right" implies that white people haven't, even though many white votes put a black man in the White House. I suppose the Reverend was referring to Native Americans as red men and Asians as yellow, surely an enjoyable sermon to them. It was supposed to be a prayer and I found it ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we constantly looking at a group of "tribes" with agendas and political factions instead of seeing ourselves as Americans first? OK, we elected a black President. Let's stop the hugging and get out of his face so he can go to work. It doesn't matter what color he is; he could even be a get-ahead red man or a mellow yellow woman.
The Berlin wall just didn't "collapse" or "come down" on it's own as if by gravity. It took decades of political and economic pressure to break the Soviet Union. At their demise they were trying to keep up with our weapons programs which caused them to spend and unsustainable one-third of their GNP on military. The will of the people to tear down the wall only mattered after their ecomomy collapsed.
Just as you correctly identify the dismantling of the Berlin Wall as a symbolic act following many years of political and economic changes, the breaking down of the racial barrier as it affects the highest office in the land (some may say our world), exists as a culmination of lifetimes of sacrifice by those who have worked for racial and economic justice.
ReplyDeleteLowery finished his speech with a homage to a great African American blues artist. Details here...
http://www.geocities.com/bourbonstreet/delta/2541/blbbroon.htm#black
The dismantling of the Berlin Wall was not a symbolic act! It is now seen as a symbol, but at the time it was the destruction of real, tangible, physical barriers that kept people in oppression. And contrary to the President's exhortations, it did not fall because the world "stood as one". Statesman of both parties, but particularly Republicans, through sustained effort over years, knocked it down. Had we an Obama presidency in the 1980s, there would likely still be a Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteIn my original posting, I acknowledged the concrete and very real nature of the Berlin Wall as a physical barrier. I agree that it took the combined efforts of many individuals, in several countries, to enact the series of events that resulted in its destruction. The sense of joy and liberation expressed by many people today regarding the inauguration of Obama reminds me, personally, of the jubilance I witnessed in western Europe during the Fall of 1989.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Obama and the Soviet Union, well, that's all conjecture, isn't it?