Barack H. Obama is now
President Barack H. Obama.
There really are no words to describe how that makes me feel. I've watched live coverage of the inauguration all day at a party that was just amazing to attend (a friend of mine threw an open "Inauguration Party" at his house and I met a ton of cool people there). I have seen pundit after pundit, historian after historian, and politico after politico try to sum up this moment, this feeling, this energy.
But I haven't seen, heard, or read anything that's gotten close to describing what this is like. My meager ability at prose doesn't stand a chance when some of the giants of American political discourse fail to succinctly capture the moment, so I won't even try. Let me just say, though, that it was because of moments like these that I fell in love with American History when I was a sad and abused and scared little girl. It was because of moments like these that I proudly identify myself as a Civics dork. It's because of moments like these that I can say with a straight face that America is the greatest nation on Earth, if not for what it is but for what it wants to be, an aspiring and ambitious young nation that always recognizes when it has fucked up and promptly corrects its course afterwards.
President Obama (just typing that makes me teary eyed!) will end up becoming one of the greatest presidents in United States history. I make that declaration with a somber (if not quite sober) mind that also recognizes the great challenges he will face. That we all will face. In fact, it's because of these challenges we face that I know he will end up being remembered as one of the greatest presidents our country has ever seen.
I believe he will either join the ranks of Washington, Lincoln, F. Roosevelt and Kennedy, or he will end up being remembered as something far more jarring and far less acceptable to my sense of human history: as the last President of the United States.
That's how bad it is here. Either he rights the ship or it goes down. There is no middle ground. Few people have been given that burden before. W wasn't given that burden. Clinton wasn't either, though times were tough. H.W. inherited the world's first sole superpower. His predecessor, Reagan, received a ship in choppy waters. Carter took the reigns of an enfeebled workhorse.
But only three presidents, now four, have ever taken the helm in truly dire times. Washington, our nation's father, had to set the tone and ultimately it was his example that made the peaceful transfer of power a tradition burned into our national conscience. Lincoln took office when state after southern state was saying it could leave our Union, trying to divide us for all time. F. D. Roosevelt, a disabled man whom Adolf Hitler would laughed off as a "cripple", came to power during an economic crisis that was so deep, so horrible, that Communism became a mainstream desire in this nation. FDR said shortly after being elected, "My job is to save Capitalism from the capitalists." And he did.
Now we have President Obama. In an age of terrorism and petty tyrants who are "on the wrong side of history", he doesn't call them evil. He doesn't rattle the saber of America's might. Instead he offers an "extended hand if they are willing to unclench their fists." (paraphrasing from memory). His words today on the steps of the Capitol building remind me so much of some of the words that first made me care about such things... JFK, saying, "We will not negotiate out of fear, but we will never fear to negotiate." and "We all live on the same small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all value our children's futures. And we are all mortal."
President Barack Obama has to succeed, otherwise America will fall. As a student of history I truly don't think the latter is possible. Logic dictates that he therefore shall succeed in leading the greatest experient in human history toward a new triumph. He will help perfect our union. Our government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, cannot perish from this earth.
To all you naysayers who will undoubtably disagree with me, let me say this: Today is not a day to be cynical. I'm turning off comments for this post, the first time I've ever done this, because I'm tired of naysayers. Today is not a day for angry right-left fights. Today is a day to realize that the promise of our nation, the United States of America, is forever perfecting itself.
God bless (and this comes from an atheist but I just can't help myself!!) President Barack Obama!
Love and best wishes for all time,
-shannon-
Labels: politics, stuff about me
