Inauguration Day!!!

                  Photo by Lyn Phillips from First Inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Lyn's memories of attending President Obama's first inauguration: the huge concert on the Mall, the SC Ball, the Air & Space Museum Ball, walking in the freezing cold to the inauguration in a massive crowd of the most peaceful, happiest, diverse people; people watching in trees; a million-plus people all being kind and courteous to each other... and experiencing the event itself. Amazing.... will never forget it.

 

Once again, it's cold in D.C. this morning.  Cozy in my South Carolina living room, I'm noticing feelings different in some ways than I experienced on the morning of the first Obama Inauguration.  As then, there's immense pride and respect for the President who has been willing to take on leadership of this troubled country.   At a time when the world seems to be tilting on its axis from fear, strife, hate and hardship.  

 

But there's no rush of heady excitement this time— because I know what he's facing; that is, what is knowable at this point.  There will be unexpected challenges, no doubt.  Also, now I'm more aware of the magnitude of mindless hate that too many feel for this President.  There's more a sense of relief and gratitude than excitement today.  I'm feeling a a little comfortable,  dancing on the edge of confidence.   I wouldn't want anyone else at the helm of our battered ship of state.  Would you?

 

This President is an honorable man—like you and me, a human being with gifts and flaws.  An earnest man who carefully thinks his way through problems that come before him.  He is wise enough to ask for the counsel of others.  He's thoughtful and measured in his words and actions.  Those things give me great comfort and peace.  He's steady.  No drama, right?  He won't steer the ship into the rocks.  I'm grateful to have him as our leader at this time in our history.

 

Some people grow older and wiser.  Others just grow older.  It's evident that President Obama has grown wiser to the ways of the Republicans in Washington and in general.  He seems to have given up the role of Charlie Brown, trusting them to hold the ball while he kicks it.  They've pulled the football and the rug out from under him too many times as he continued trying to heal the partisan divide.  He had high hopes for doing that, I think.  Just turned out that the other Party wanted only to see him defeated on every issue, even on issues they favored until he joined them! They wanted to see him defeated in 2012—wanted it far more than getting people back to work and the country back on its feet. 

 

This President has the passion, determination, and the wisdom of experience to make things happen, with or without the obstructionists.  A preview of coming attractions: Signing Executive Orders to increase safety in the face of accelerating gun violence.  I sense a fire in his belly, a passion unhampered by re-election considerations.   He seems to have removed "bi-partisanship" from its lofty place on his priority list.  Now he's just there to get the job done.   And I believe he will. 

 

During the last Inaugural festivities"hope" was everywhere I looked in the 1.8 million crowd.   Four years later,  there's no doubt in my mind that this time it's "change"that's in the air.   I can feel it.  Can you?