A Great Gettin' Up Morning (my essay on...well...all this)

WilliamPitt

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Tue Jan-20-09 04:40 PM
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A Great Gettin' Up Morning (my essay on...well...all this)

A Great Gettin' Up Morning
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Tuesday 20 January 2008

The cover of the newest Nation Magazine depicts a painting of Obama's inauguration rendered and submitted by a member of the online web forum DailyKos. The painting is in no way historically accurate, as Thurgood Marshall is depicted delivering the oath, but in every meaningful way, the artwork is spot-on truth. Susan B. Anthony is there, and here, as is Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Jordan, and Malcolm X, and Henry David Thoreau, and Gandhi, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and down at the front by the rail, there and here are four little girls from Birmingham who died in fire long ago. They are all on that podium today. We were all on that podium today.

One hundred forty-eight years of globalization with its benefits and its burdens make this a very different world from the one Lincoln lived and served in. Lincoln's failure would have left scarred the face of America, extending the cruel tragedy of slavery and perhaps fracturing the Union. His success helped keep the American dream alive. Obama's failure would heighten the threat of unprecedented global damage, but his success could help lead our great nation and this entire threatened world into a new period of enlightenment and progress. Obama's moment in history is a unique one. There has never been more to worry about, but neither has there ever been more to hope for. - Mario Cuomo, Newsday

It's strange. You wait for a day to come, you wish for it and pine for it and imagine what it will be like, you want so badly and wait so long for it to come that you despair it will ever be, and then one day, you're there, and you're not quite sure what to do with yourself. That was today.

As Obama fiddled with his inaugural address and spent Martin Luther King Day touting the virtues of community service, a ghost-town aura settled over the White House as President Bush endured his last full day in office in virtual seclusion. He met with aides, received routine briefings and commuted the sentences of two Border Patrol agents. In the afternoon, he was visited in the Oval Office by his father, who was spending the night in the White House, most likely for the last time. West Wing offices were piled with packing boxes, and color photographs of Bush had been pulled down from office walls. Many staffers worked their last day Friday, leaving a skeleton crew. The press room was as empty as on a summer weekend. Asked about the mood, a Bush staffer said: "Quiet. Subdued." - Thomas M. DeFrank, New York Daily News

There is a song I have been saving for this day. It is called "Medium Man/Floating Candles/Nighean Caileach Nan Cearc," and it's this wild, loud, exuberant bagpipe detonation performed by the Battlefield Band out of Edinburgh, Scotland. A long time ago, I chose this as my song of celebration, my anthem of triumph, and I have not played the damned thing even once in all these years. I have opened all the curtains, I have opened all the windows, I have cued up my song, and once the oath is done, the whole neighborhood is going to hear it.

(snip)

It all happened quickly once the noon hour approached. Aretha sang, Biden swore, Yo Yo Ma played, and then ...

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. - President Barack Hussein Obama

I was alone in my room on December 13, 2000, when this all started, when the Supreme Court decided to unleash Bush, when the deal first started going down. I was alone in my room again more than eight years later when Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in, when the crowds in Washington cheered, when it all finally ended, and something different began in its place.

I played my song at last.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/012009C