Whatever today brings, whatever follows for the next four years, today marks an historic event.
It isn't merely that Barack Hussein Obama is a departure from the Crusty White Man power archetype that sets him apart. While there will be plenty of ink, tears and pixels spilled on that subject (here, among many other places), the true significance of today's inauguration is that the system worked. After eight years of being told and shown that we were trapped within a literally rigged game of Cowboy Poker, we the American People stood up, took control, and brought the most unlikely viable(*) presidential candidate in living memory and chose him to represent us all.
As I wrote on my other blog yesterday, the greatest power of an American president is symbolic. S/he reflects the nation as a whole. With Barack Obama, we have chosen a man who symbolizes the hope, diversity, intellect, eloquence, activism and decisive change from the Old Way Of Doing Things (TM). That a man whose father was an immigrant from a poor and often despised nation, whose mother held old roots in this country's shame and promise, whose skin color reflects the slavery that remains this nation's second-greatest sin (**) and whose ballsy intellect embodies its bravest virtue could become our president says great things about our culture. It's not time to give up on us yet. And that, I think, is the most inspiring thing of all.
May Obama remain the symbol these desperate times demand. May he dodge every bullet (figurative and literally) and transcend his own failings. May this be the beginning of a new, enduring path for America and for our world as we enter the second decade of this new and challenging millennium. May all attacks against him fail and return against their senders with Threefold Return, save those launched in justice should he turn from his proclaimed path. May Obama the Man survive his vast potential of becoming Obama the Martyr, and may the Hope he represents become the gateway for a new and better age for us all.
Whatever happens from here on out, we stand on the threshold of a brand new era.
May Barack Obama, America and humanity as a whole prove worthy of this moment.
Blessings!
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* - By this, I mean one who actually stood a chance of being elected and serving in office.
** - I count the Native American genocide as its greatest sin.
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