Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inaugeration

OK, so I was hokey and wore red, white and blue today, and my scarf that is inspired by the American flag. Some students were so gauche as to laugh. The ironic thing is that the ones making fun of me, were African American.



Third block is the block that has lunch and the inaugeration. I was able to borrow a classroom with a smartboard, and was not able to get in the que to get on CNN, nor could I get a stream from 11Alive. Finally I could get a streaming video from http://www.wsbtv.com/. Students had to stay in the classroom until JUST before Obama took the oath. I didn't know about the performance by Itzak Perlman and YoYo Ma, et al. so I was surprised by that, but happy to get to hear it. I thought at first that Obama had messed up the oath, but it turned out it was the CHIEF JUSTICE that screwed up and Obama waited for him to correct himself. Wow, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court choaked at the crucial moment. That'll be a moment in history to live down! I'm grateful to the content teacher who also wanted our students to see history being made. The rest of the school IF their teacher considered it important, was only able to watch the delayed feed at 2:30. There were no announcements today, and not one word of official focus on the history being made today. Apparently there are just too many dissatisfied Republicans or apathetic "citizens" or folks who prefer to ignore the specifics of today for other reasons I don't like to think about. I feel strongly it was an opportunity in Civics lost forever.



I just left Richmond, and I have to tell you it's COLD up there. Poor Barak has big 'ol ears that poke out. I have to wonder if the poor man's ears are about to freeze off, flappin' in the wind on such a cold day!? It was nice to see how tenderly and kindly everyone was to the little girls. I suspect that Michelle will have windburn on those legs. Did she look pretty or what!?



Courtesy of Getty photos is this very nice image.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised they walked ANY of the route back to the White House. I am afraid beyond belief that there is a big 'ol target on that man, and that some idiot will change history before we get a chance to see what this man can do. I'm glad beyond measure that GWB is gone. Whatever BHO does, it has to be an improvement! I'm so excited to hear that he wants to open up Science and that gives me hope because I take that to mean that stem cell research is about to crank up. People with cancer can benefit a lot from that research. It's nice to have a man with a intellect in the White House.

A lot of the old folks where my friend Lucille lives, went to a prayer service at 10:30 this morning to pray for President-elect Obama. I hope people continue to pray for his health, safety and discernment over his Presidency.

If there was a moment that I almost cried, it was when Aretha Franklin sang the old school song, "My County Tis of Thee." I loved her hat! I loved her presentation. I thought that was a classy moment, but I thought too of how far this country has come in her generation. I couldn't help but wonder what thoughts were going through John Lewis' brain right then. More than anything, I hope this man is the President to ALL of the people in America. He has 26 chromosomes from his dad that make his skin dark, but his mom gave him 26 chromosomes that are lily white, and he grew up in suburban white America. I believe as a common person that doesn't come from fabulous riches, but clearly has altruism and service in his soul, he can more accurately represent and identify with people like ME. And maybe you too. Let's celebrate with hope today, in the belief that tomorrow and many more tomorrows will be better because of his wisdom.

Believe..........believe in good. Hope for good. Hope upon hope that he hasn't had to sell his soul in order to get where he is.

(No matter what, I bet BHO never, ever thought he'd be on a blog that began about boobs!)

5 comments:

Calypso said...

AMEN!

My personal view of the HUGE mistake our chief justice made?
He was getting back at Obama for voting against his appointment.
Perhaps?
All in all an amazing historic day, we watched it all through the day and I held Skyla on my lap while he was sworn in. I sang the national anthem, and she looked at me in surprise. *S*

Things are going to change. I feel very positive about that. Won't be tomorrow, but it will eventually.

watercolordaisy said...

Amen! It was just lovely. What a great day!

Susan Tidwell said...

Great post! I also teared up when Arethra started singing, I was instantly transported back to all those mornings in grade school when we would say the pledge and sing this song. Glad you got to see it and share it with your students.

Anonymous said...

Well said/written!

Anonymous said...

I have same wish that I would have had for anyone in the large group that started running over a year ago: I hope that he does a great job. We need somebody to do a great job.

Of course the cynic in me still says that no one that wants to be president should allowed to be president. Yes I realize that would create a catch-22.