Inauguration Reflections 0

Yesterday, I went to a luncheon organized under the auspices of Moveon.org (Shake it off. Move on, already, for heaven’s sake. Stop wanking and fix the damn problems. That is what “move on” means.)

I started tearing up on the way there (about 15 minutes down Washington Street from here).

So, I’m sitting there at the table with my head bent and my left hand over my eyes trying to hold back the tears, as the telly vision showed images of bigwigs filing onto the West Front of the Capitol (where I used to take lunchtime walks when I worked up the street from there) when the lady sitting next to me touches me on the shoulder and asks, “Are you okay?”

“I’m better than I’ve been in eight years.”

“I thought it was emotion, but after a while, I decided I should check and make sure you weren’t choking or something.”

I could still feel the dried tears on my cheeks when I went to bed.

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I would not want Mr. Obama’s new job for the world.

But I’m glad he wanted it.

I believe that he is a man of honor, with a good heart. And he’s obviously smart. And he’s a slick, wily politician who, as the Booman keeps pointing out, is skillfully neutering the opposition.

All in all, a most unusual combination.

I will not say that he is the only person who could pull it off; there are a lot of smart, honest persons in politics out there; most of the time, they are not the ones who get the headlines.

But I think he can pull it off. For all our sakes, I hope he does.

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And his wife loves him.

You could tell by the little touches. Like when they were sitting on the West Front before the ceremonies really started, and she was turned away talking to the girls and reached out behind her from several feet away and unerringly placed her hand on his shoulder for an instant.

There were a couple of others between the two of them that I noticed at the time but forget now.

That makes also him a lucky man.

And he needs luck, too.

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A return to honest government within the mainstream American tradition would be a triumph.

Fixing even two or three of the biggest problems we face will get him his own marble memorial building on the Mall.

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Notice how Bush kept getting smaller as Mr. Obama’s speech went on?

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So many persons worked so hard for this.

I was just a little cog; I did what I could, but it wasn’t much.

Some of my friends were Big Cogs who did so much more than I.

So many persons worked so hard for this.

It’s not a perfect country, but it’s the only one we have.

It remains the only country in history founded, not on geography, not on ethnicity, but on an idea, the idea of freedom under the rule of law.

In the last eight years, the “rule of law” part has been betrayed beyond recognition.

So many persons worked so hard for this.

We have our country back. Now we have to keep it.

The work goes on.