The Revolution Will Be Televised

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

...God of our weary years, god of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our god, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land...

At 12:01pm this afternoon, Barack Hussein Obama became the president of the United States of America. Although the program was running a little late and he had not been officially sworn in yet, the Constitution reads that the new president assumes his title at 12:01pm on Inauguration Day.

The benediction was provided by Reverend Joseph Lowery, the founding memeber of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He began with some beautiful lines from "Life Every Voice and Sing," a song written by James Weldon Johnson and proudly referred to as the Black National Anthem. You betta do that.

It was a brilliant and exciting ceremony as members of Congress, former presidents, their wives, children, and more were introduced. When President Obama was finally introduced, there was an electricity that I'm sure swept through the crowd and shocked us watching at home. Congratulations President Obama and Vice President Biden.

President Obama gave a wonderful speech, as he always does. This speech, however, was especially exceptional because of the manner in which the President reached out to the international community. He demonstrated the kind of global concern I think the Bush administration forgot about.

President Obama informed us that his administration would take a new course in negotiating with the Muslim world. He has not given up on peace in the Middle East. He promised the nations living in abject poverty that the United States would assist in agricultural efforts that will sustain the people and provide clean water for every man, woman, and child.

He told the US and other Western nations that enjoy relative wealth that they can no longer "afford indifference to suffering" around the world or consume the world's resources while irreverent to the global consequence. He condemned leaders who continue to destroy, deceive, take advantage of, silence, and murder their own people. They are on "the wrong side of history".

Some complained that President Barack Obama's speech was a superfluous display of word art and outlined no real policy on how his administration plans to do all that he spoke of. Maybe that is true. But was it the time for policy talk? On this day of great sociological and historical importance, do we really want him to stand up there in front of people who have been outside in the DC winter cold since 4am and talk about policy?

As the first Black president, standing on the platform of a building built by slaves, cleaned and repaired by slaves, all the while counting them as only 3/5 of a person in the Constitution that we depend on to define and maintain our democracy, can we please excuse him for not including policy in his speech? He is trying to unify a country ragged and battered by racial conflict, religious disagreement, bitter history, political fighting, etc. in order to more positively contribute to the improvement of the world. He has four years to deal with policy.

The backdrop (for me) of this historic day was the departure of Former President George Bush. President Obama was very gracious in thanking Former President Bush for his service to our country, but the speech he delivered also did not lightly rebuke the irresponsible actions of America under the Bush administration. The Bush administration was a disastrous and devastating one for many in a personal way, not in a removed, political ideological manner. I was excited to see him go.

As CNN juxtaposed Bush's departure with Obama's arrival, a correspondent commented that this is the purest day of American democracy. And it is. This outstanding peaceful transition of power is something to be admired. No matter how vehemently some may disagree with President Obama's election or any president's election, we enthusiastically and ritualistically change our head of state with little to no trouble. God bless America. And God, make it possible for other countries around the world to enjoy the nourishing meal of peace.

The Revolution has been televised.