A Historic Inaugural Address

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.  Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.  At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans.

Yes, I cried. As did millions of other proud citizens who weren’t standing there in serious danger of having those tears freeze solid on our cheeks if we dared to let them flow.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.  They are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.  But know this, America –  they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

Amen! And to the immortal words of George Washington -

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America.  In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.  With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.  Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Let’s use it wisely this time, America. That means not just being courageous enough to meet our serious challenges head-on with firmness and resolve, it also means rectifying the damage done to our nation and its cherished principles done by the past eight years’ worth of decimation of the Constitution, beginning most ominously with the interference of the Supreme Court, which dared to stop counting of the people’s votes so it could unilaterally appoint a pretender who could never have been in that position if our erstwhile leaders had finished the task of redress back when they impeached Richard M. Nixon.

And in that vein, perhaps the most hopeful sign of all in this past glorious few days’ worth of celebration is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sudden change of heart about the necessity for redress for the Bush administration’s blanket abrogation of Law with ’signing statements’ and executive orders, unilateral recinding of our nation’s signatory status to the important documents our past leaders helped to draft – the Geneva Convention – the mockery of international law with genocidal wars of unwarranted aggression they lied to us repeatedly to justify, the trashing of our fundamental Constitutional rights with illegal wiretaps and ‘extraordinary rendition’ and the sweeping abrogation of Habeas Corpus…

So many wrongs to right. So many challenges to face. God bless, Obama, we will do our parts.

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