I spent a good portion of yesterday glued to the tv watching the inauguration ceremony and later some of the inauguration balls that were shown on tv. I must say that the Obama team did a good job with the day. The day was stirring, emotional and inspiring. President Obama was poised, confident and presidential.
It was so nice to see the former president leave. I could almost feel the weight of his presidency lift off of our shoulders and the breath of fresh air that hopefully will be President Obama's term fill our lungs as we breathed a sigh of relief.
The crowds were huge, but with the exception of some booing for President Bush (and some singing of Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye) the crowds were happy, polite, and respectful. I think I heard that there were no arrests made by the police involving the crowd yesterday. Considering there were around two million or more people there, that is amazing! It was a wonderful ceremony.
The music was great. I especially loved the instrumental piece. I placed the video of the performance below. Aretha Franklin was wonderful too, but I did have a problem listening to her. I was too busy looking at her hat. Ms. Franklin, I love you and your voice dearly, but please, lose the hat.
President Obama's speech was timely, to the point and just right for the occasion. Our president is a great speaker, and he lived up to that yesterday with his inauguration speech.
There were only two jarring moments in the whole day. One was the disturbing news that Senator Ted Kennedy took ill during the inaugural luncheon and had to be transported to the hospital. The word is that he is doing better and may be discharged from hospital sometime today. My family and I send our prayers and good thoughts to Senator Kennedy and his family.
The other jarring moment came at the beginning of the ceremony as I figured it would with the invocation by Rick Warren. His prayer was the only thing that seemed out of place in the entire ceremony. There was a clear difference between his opening invocation and the closing invocation performed buy the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery. One was inclusive while one preached only to a narrow portion of our population. One spoke for us all, while one spoke for himself. One reached the crowd and had them in his hand agreeing with his words and saying, "Amen!" and "Amen!" while the other had the crowd glad he was finished, and why didn't he finish sooner? Just in case you can't figure out which preacher said which prayer, I've included the videos of both below. I really don't like having Rick Warren's words and voice on my blog, but I think it is important that we see the two men side by side. Then it is easy to see who is the better preacher (and person).
Now the work comes; not just for President Obama, but for all of us. Obama can't do it alone. He needs everyone working with him and sometimes keeping his "feet to the fire" to make sure that we return our country to the proud democracy that it should be, used to be, and can be even better.
Yes We Did
Yes We Can
Let's Get to Work!
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