History Lived

I work with a man who grew up in the rough part of Houston and went to an all-black college. He is married to a doctor, owns a smoothie franchise in the Denver area, runs a non-profit organization to help young blacks get interested in engineering or other math related fields and has worked for our company for 24 years. He is an interestion person and we have had some interesting conversations, particularly leading up to the elections. He takes MLK day off every year and this year he took two days off in a row. As he was reminding me on Friday that he was taking "Dr. King Day" off and would be taking today off for the inauguration as well, his excitement was somewhat infectious as he recommended that I do the same. So yesterday, as I was sitting at work thinking about him, I decided to leave work after lunch. I'm not sure why. I just felt like it considering the extra gravity of this MLK day and in honor of my co-worker.



Today while I was at my desk at work, I put on my headphones and began streaming the inauguration proceedings. (It is against company policy to stream, but I am sure they will forgive me this one if they find out, especially since there were probably many other doing the same thing.) I don't really like inauguration ceremonies; too much like a coronation if you ask me. And I heard one estimate on the radio this morning that put the cost of this inauguration at $172M which would be extremely excessive in a burgeoning economy, much less this one. But I thought I would try to watch considering the historical significance of this one and I wanted to hear the inaugral speech.



It is hard not to get caught up somewhat in the excitement that was obviously surrounding this inauguration. It is a small step forward in American history. I have often said that America is not as racist as the race brokers would have us believe. I feel validated by the fact that not only did America elect a black president, but they did it enthusiastically. And when Aretha Franklin started singing "My Country Tis of Thee" at the inauguration of a black American President, I got chills. I may not agree with his politics, I can certainly appreciate what that moment meant for my co-worker and the potential it has for healing some long standing wounds. I think that the older generations felt it more than I did. Sam Donaldson was beside himself that we could have a black president.



Obama then gave a speech that had me saying "right on" one sentence and then "what the ..." the next. I understand that he ran on a platform of change. And that now that he has had security briefings and received information for which he didn't previously have clearance, he realized that there can't be as much change as he promised during the campaign. And several of the statements he made were strong declarations of America's strength and resolve. I was encouraged by those. But he made some absolutely unnecessary jabs at his predecessor,a man to whom, I am confident, history will be very kind, and at those who voted for someone else.

Obama is going to find that the next four years are going to be tough, that presidential life is not easy. I wish him the best and hope that he can show the world that someone from a minority group in a country can succeed. There are not too many countries in the world that I can think of that would elect a minority to the highest office of the country. I hope that he can overcome the inflamitory retoric that tainted his speech today and work to bring people together as he promised during his campaign. Tomorrow will be tough. But today he can celebrate.