Asides

“Inaugural Memories” of An Obama Volunteer

According to my watch, it was 12:03 PM.  If that was accurate, then Barack Obama had already been President for three minutes!  He, Mrs. Obama, and Chief Justice Roberts took their places for the swearing in.  Although things happened very quickly, I recognized the slip-up.  I also thought that President Obama had paused gracefully to give the Chief Justice time to recover and to rephrase the Oath correctly.  As we know, they got through a version of the Oath, which President Obama would retake on 21 January “out of an abundance of caution.” 

The Fox news pundit who wondered if Mr. Obama had really been President during the interim should be sent back to Civics 101.  Legal experts quickly reassured us that the slip-up did not negate the actions that President Obama had “executed” between the first and second takes of the Oath of Office. 

As the Oath ended, a tremendous cheer, the loudest I have ever heard, arose and seemed unstoppable.  Around me, many now wept openly.  Most of us shook hands with or hugged the person(s) standing nearest us.  At that moment, all the long hours of canvassing, often in “hostile” territory; the ears numb from hours of ‘phone banking; the pleas to merchants to allow us to register new voters near their shops; the brush-offs from people who had never voted and refused even to register this time, when so much was at stake; the thousand tasks that volunteers do – all faded into insignificance. We had shared in paving the way, for what our new President would call “the work of remaking of America.”  

Over the four days of Inaugural events, I had listened to and re-read every speech that President Obama had given. To me, each had been in some way a prelude to his Inaugural Address.  Later I learned that some critics said his Inaugural speech was not up to his usual standards; they cited the lack of the soaring rhetoric for which he is famous.  But if they thought the speech somehow diminished, they heard something different from what I heard.  He said exactly what needed to be said.  He reminded us that during the tough times in our history, Americans have always risen to new challenges – and we would face the current challenges: quote: “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”.

He quoted General Washington’s challenge to the colonists fighting the armies of the mighty British Empire during a bitter winter and against seemingly impossible odds.  And then: “America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember” [Washington’s] timeless words . . “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. . we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations”.

Someone once said that during our each of our worst and most perilous times as a nation, we were blessed with a great leader – Washington, Lincoln, FDR . . Men of vision, who had the courage to act on that vision and the perseverance to see us through the worst of our danger.  For those of us who stood there at that moment, cheering our new President with everything in us, there were no doubts that he will be such a leader. President Obama, yes you can! Yes you will!” .  

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