A little more about President Obama's Inauguration

Yesterday's inauguration moved me greatly.

After some trepidation four years ago, I have become quite proud of our president.  A loyal supporter.  And I think his speech during the inauguration yesterday was brilliant.  I think it was honest and from the heart.  I believe Barack Obama to be a good man and a decent man.  A man of "true" family values.  A man who lives those values and doesn't preach them falsely.  I also think he wants what's best for this country and if not for a congress determined to make it look as though the president failed, would move us forward.

While I was watching I felt the stirrings of "oh my - gotta write about this!" begin and I realized how much I've missed writing pieces from my heart for Meanderings and Muses.  It's not that I haven't felt them - I just haven't had the time while writing "Whimsey." 

Whimsey is now out of my hands for a while.  I shipped it off to the Ebook formatting company "booknook.biz" which I've heard wonderful things about.  I'm waiting for an estimate now.  After the estimate, I don't know how long the turn-around time is for the Ebook formatted file to be sent back to me, but not too long, I don't think.  Then I'll take it to Kindle Direct Publishing.  So - in the very near future I'll get to see my book in print.  my book.  whew.  That is powerful.  Even more powerful, to me, is that my mother will get to see it. 

So. 

Back to "this" piece.

I couldn't get started.  I was stuck.  "Where do I start?"  How do I put all the feelings I have about this inauguration, this man - our president, into the words I'm feeling. 

Stumped.  I was stumped.

So I got in my car and went to The Gym (that's the name of it - that's why you always see it capitalized.  Don't you love that?).  Immediately, while driving, the words started falling into place.  While doing my work-out it just wrote itself.  And here it is, starting with the piece I posted yesterday.  It's not earth shattering.  It's a small, small thing in the big scheme of things.  But important in my scheme of things.  And I'll be doing some short pieces sharing my feelings here this week.

I find the irony of the inauguration falling on the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. chillingly appropriate.  I cannot even begin to imagine how the Obama family feels, or for that matter, every black family in these United States.  I like to think Dr. King has been looking down and smiling on the Obama family, proud to see this beautiful family together and happy.  And wishing them well.

As am I.  As am I.



 

The Inauguration

I didn't start out an "Obama Girl," or "Obama Bunny" as a friend of a one-time friend referred to me.  I was, and remain, a huge and very loyal "Hillary Girl."  I didn't think Barack Obama had the experience needed to do the job.

I felt as though some people who had been supporters of Hillary Clinton were being swayed by a charming, charismatic man who had captured the world's attention with the first speech many of us watched him give in 2004 when he did the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.  I felt like we were being courted.  And while I saw the things others saw in this young man, truthfully, I resented him - I felt like it was Hillary's turn.  I felt as though she had earned the right to be the person nominated as the Democrat's choice.  I thought it was her turn to win.  I believed in my heart she would be our next president after eight years under a president who I felt was a puppet to the vice president, along with special interest groups, and who, in my always humble opinion, just wasn't quite up to the job.  I think Hillary Clinton would have been a good president. I still do.  I hope she'll take another run at it.

But. Barack Obama won.  Pretty soon my Democrat friends were saying, "he's more Republican than Democrat!" 

My Republican friends hated him from Day One. 

Congress?  We're not even gonna go there.  It's too embarrassing.

Me?  I came to admire him and support him.

I watched the inauguration and was moved.  (and fell in love with Aretha's Hat!).
http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2009/01/whats-left-to-say.html
http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2009/01/whats-left-to-say-part-ii-more-on.html

I watched him dance at the inaugural balls with his beautiful wife and fell in love with him.  What's sexier than a man who is over the moon in love with his wife and can show her and the rest of world during a slow dance?

Four years later I watched him during his second inauguration.  This time, firmly in his camp.  I think he's a decent man - proably too decent to be in the bed of vipers we call our nation's capital.  I think, given some support from congress, he could turn this country around and put us back on track.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, there was no Aretha's Hat for me to fall in love with.  But, oh man, those red coats with the fur collars and cuffs the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir wore?  sigh.  Yeah, I could enjoy the heck out of wearing one of those.

Our President - Nobel Peace Prize Winner

In an announcement that apparently surprised practically everyone in the entire world, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced they would honor President Barack Obama as Nobel Peace Prize winner for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."




President Obama responded by saying he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Further saying, "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership."

"I will accept this award as a call to action."

Obama said he did not feel he deserves "to be in the company" of past winners.



The Nobel announcement was a stunning decision that comes just eight months into Obama's presidency.

What some other Nobel Peace Prize winners have to say about it:

"He has had a very significant impact. It (his presidency) has changed the temperature and almost everybody feels a little more hopeful about the world." - Desmond Tutu (1984)

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself." Mohamed ElBaradei (2005)

"In these hard times people who are capable of taking responsibility, who have a vision (of problems), commitment and political will should be supported." Gorbachev (1990)"


And then up pop the nay sayers.

Y'all.

I have never been so weary of politics in my life.

I have always been fairly politically active.

I can remember when people from different parties could discuss political differences.

Aside and apart from politics, I can remember when people were kinder to one another. When we all showed one another respect in our daily interactions with one another.

What on EARTH has happened to us?

Now, people like Rush Limbaugh - NOT an elected official (THANK GOD!) - can become a talking head for an entire political party. News stations can broadcast "news" that is simply not true.

All of this anger surfaces in too many places, too often.

I'm as guilty as anyone else, I'm afraid.

In response to a posting on Facebook this morning that was lambasting Barack Obama, and the Nobel Committee, asking what had Obama done to deserve the prize, I fired off the following response:

"Well. For one thing, he tries awfully hard to start with a grass roots approach of encouraging people right here in our own country to show a little bit of kindness, courtesy and respect to one another. It "could" grow from there IF people would stop thinking the two political parties (both political parties included) would stop acting like they're Junior Varsity sports teams in a pissing contest and get on about the business of actually running the country - you know, the job they were elected to do. Where they're instead getting GREAT health benefits and GREAT retirement plans which will have them set for life while creating a country of homeless, uninsured American citizens. But it's loads more fun to just call the man who was elected as president names and ridicule everything he does and or attempts to do. Of course he hasn't gotten world peace in the short time he's been in office, but he's at least undoing some of the evil the last president did. People around the world don't seem to hate Obama as much as they did Bush. It's only our own citizens who now hate the president."

And then, immediately after posting the above rant (and since that's exactly what it was - a rant, it's a bit garbled and I apologize for that), I happened to glance up and my eyes caught sight of a bumper sticker I have stuck on a filing cabinet in my office. And it gave me pause.

Words are powerful, and I wish we could all remember that. I include myself. I don't have a smidgen of control over what anyone else does, or says, or believes. I need to remember this and just take care of my own actions and my own carelessness with words.

And not only remember the words on this bumper sticker, but live them - - - -

and I'm making a promise to myself, right now, to try to do better - beginning right now.



But. I have also always, my entire life - even as a little girl - spoken up when I've seen injustices being done. I hope I never become so cowed or intimidated by anyone to ever forget a quote I have always lived my life by -

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’