This is my meditation on the inauguration. It started out as a post here and then a respose to a question from mk. My feeling was that not everyone in the hubskiverse would understand the reference to Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall from the president's inaugural address. I was kind of shocked when my well-educated spousal unit just asked me, "What is the significance of Seneca Falls?" I told him to read my blog. He said, "Later." Then, "I sort of remember it. Was it something to do with Viet Nam?" Sigh.
The mention of stonewall floored me. My mind went through a few calculations. 1) Maybe he was hoping it would be some sort of dog whistle that Republican/Tea Party members will not understand... 2) It is way too blatant for people to not get it, or well for Fox News to not start running with it. This is the same press that tried to hang Obama by connecting him to Bill Ayers. "President Obama calls for gays to riot" 3) Damn. Is Obama actually going to do something now? Has he come back to being vaguely liberal instead of vaguely moderate? 4) Oh wait, Congress. JK LOL.
One other addition. Beyond the political aspects of it. Man that is some good speech writing, connecting those three made a bit of poetry.
There couldn't be a larger difference between how I approached Obama's first and second inaugurations. I went to the first inauguration, sat on the steps of the Lincoln memorial right where Dr. King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech. I watched the historic moment unfold awash with "hope" and confident that it was truly a new day I have not seen once piece of footage from this inauguration. In fact, the only bit of press that I've read has been your blog. And I'm glad that I did read your blog because I like what it focuses on. These are important events that signify a sea change in political discourse. The largest being that Gay rights are no longer something to be cast aside as a "someday" issue. The time has come to call those who oppose gay rights "bigots". It was a monumental thing for him to mention. I should say that like your husband, I wasn't immediately clear on what each event were. I don't think I would have guessed Vietnam though :-) Nice piece lil, thanks for giving me a glimpse in to the inauguration. I think I'll go listen to his whole speech now.
I love the song! It's still a new day - every day is. As I suspected, many people esp. young people are unfamiliar with the significance of those three places. I can trace many of the hits on my blog to Google searches of the three places, including Googlers in Chile, Italy, India, etc.
More than the song, I found the comments to that link interesting. People became pretty disillusioned with Obama after his election. Myself included. I think it's a testament to how crappy the GOP is that he was reelected.
A year and a half ago, you said, I think that a second term will bring about Obama 2.0 He will still be a centrist but he will get shit done. -That's my opinion. Rose colored glasses are officially off though.
You're right so far... Let's see what the bugs and features are.