1.20.2009

Inauguration Day 09





I sit here in awe listening to President Obama's Inauguration speech. He is saying everything we need to hear to move forward, to pick ourselves up and have faith that starting again will be fruitful. It has been many years since I felt that way. He reminds us that we are great. That we must hold hands and go forward, not alone, but in concert, with sure confidence that there is something better waiting, if only we will walk that necessary path.



"The fierce urgency of now."

"We are willing to extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

"With hope and virtue let us once again brave these icy currents." I think he quoted George Washington here....correct me, please, if I'm wrong.

..."a new era of responsibility...this is the price of citizenship..." David and Mark say this is the core passage of the speech.

David Brooks said about the address: Obama gave an inclusive speech. He can be grand, but thinks of himself as a pragmatist. Has more of a built-in philosophy that Reagan did.

Mark Shields: It was a premise about what he believed. Thinly veiled insults about what has gone on before. No action statements, but a call to join, to be part of one, something bigger.


Praise Song for the Day - the poem at the Inauguration

"all about us is noise..."
"someone is stitching up a hem..."
"someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons....."
"a woman and her son wait for the bus...."
"we encounter each other with words..."
"I need to see what's on the other side. I know there's something better down the road."
"We walk into that which we have waited...." ??? what's the rest of this line?
"What if the mightiest word is love..." This is my favorite!
"love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to pre-empt grievance..."
"Praise song for walking forward in that light"

Rev. Joseph Lowery
"Mend our brokenness..."
"...turn to each other, not on each other...."
"...when brown can stick around, when black doesn't have to get back?, when yellow is mellow, when white can embrace what is right..." ??? not sure I got that right but you get the idea.

I will fix the quotes when possible, but in the meantime forgive the inaccuracies which are not meant to slight the speakers in any way.

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