I feel some kind of obligation to write about President Obama, but the truth is that Inauguration Day felt anticlimactic to me. We elected this man MONTHS ago. Where have you all been? Why hasn't he been running the country since then? He's been my president since about 8:30 p.m. on November 4, 2008.
It also felt anticlimactic because, well, it was a normal work day. Funny that, how the world does not stop so that I might watch the inauguration. I missed the moment. I caught the "so help me God" at the end, but I missed the very moment. I missed history.
I should be more upset about that. I am sad, a little, but I'm not upset. This is how life goes. On. And as I said, I have thought of him as our one and only president for over two months. (George WHO?)
The transition was accomplished, for me, when President Obama walked out onto the platform. His face, calm and resolute, made it all real to me. He is exactly the President I want and we need.
...
Five things I want to remember:
It also felt anticlimactic because, well, it was a normal work day. Funny that, how the world does not stop so that I might watch the inauguration. I missed the moment. I caught the "so help me God" at the end, but I missed the very moment. I missed history.
I should be more upset about that. I am sad, a little, but I'm not upset. This is how life goes. On. And as I said, I have thought of him as our one and only president for over two months. (George WHO?)
The transition was accomplished, for me, when President Obama walked out onto the platform. His face, calm and resolute, made it all real to me. He is exactly the President I want and we need.
...
Five things I want to remember:
- "I, Barack Hussein Obama..." - We have a President whose very name links us to the rest of the world, instead of dividing us.
- The Chief Justice saying, "Congratulations, Mr. President."
- This quote from the front news page on my yahoo email: "A jubilant crowd of more than a million waited for hours in frigid temperatures to witness the moment as a young black man with a foreign-sounding name took command of a nation founded by slaveholders." (I don't know about that "young" part, but I suppose that, comparatively, he is pretty young.) "A nation founded by slaveholders..." I almost believe, today, that we may someday overcome the past that cripples us.
- The tears in the eyes of Bakary Kamara, an immigrant from the Gambia, in this photograph in the New York Times.
- A campaign sign in the window of an apartment on my way home from the store tonight that read, "President Obama." It's finally true.
Congratulations, President Barack Hussein Obama. I am honored to call you my President. Officially, at long last.
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