"In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
-- attributed to St. Augustine
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Despite differences of opinion and perspective, of motive and foresight, I am inspired by Barack Obama. 1968-2008: A true example of how much can change in forty years, if you live in as wonderful a nation as this. Tasteful and forceful, his inauguration address has caused even a skeptical conservative like me to realize just how petty a lot of my opinions really are. With the same spirit that I deride the liberal media and remain wary of most of Obama's proposals, I must also turn the peering lens on myself, looking closely into the mirror and seeing the fault of a too-narrow mind, a dangerous form of righteous bigotry (or bigoted righteousness).
All that goes to say: I didn't hate Bush, and I don't hate Obama. As commander-in-chief, our highest executive office holder, and a far-left liberal, he still has my admiration and respect. I hope the support he has gathered is tempered by a sense of humble responsibility and respect for the principles and virtues that make this country great.
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People have shed tears at every performance of Coretta Scott King, and their cumulative drops have dampened and weighed on my heart. Any way you look at this day, history is in the making.
2 comments:
"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours."
-- Noam Chomsky
There's something about Hope that is fantastically catching. I'm on board with it, I think. At the very least, I'm willing to be hopeful.
I think I'm similarly inspired by Obama. The problem is that I disagree with him on everything. But at least he seems like a decent individual.
I watched about half of the speech and a few things after as I was getting ready for work. I got angry, though, because the first channel I randomly flipped to was CNBC and I had to hear Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann orgasm about progress. I remember getting similarly angry on election night when they said that government was the solution, not the problem. It's all very funny, though, because they deride FoxNews for doing the same thing about Republicans. Sometimes the media (even though I'm technically a part of it now) makes me ill.
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