Pomp and Circumstance

I have pulled myself away from ABC's minute-to-minute...actually second-to-second coverage of President Obama's inauguration to share some thoughts with you. I am completely fascinated with all the pomp and circumstance surrounding this four year event. The parades, the flags, the patriotic hymns, the ceremonial traditions, everything surrounding this timeless passing of the torch is rich with history and I am mesmorized. Inaugural speeches have lend us amazing phrases such as "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" and "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Each elected President has given an inaugural speech, beginning with our first, President George Washington. Their speeches give an insight into the mood and happenings of the United States when they took the oath of office.

In his humble auratory, he pleaded with the "Parent of the Human Race" that "since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend."

Abraham Lincoln faced an already divided country in his first inaugural address, and confronted the Southern issue of slavery head on. His profound words still ring true with our current crisis our country is in, "Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it."

After suffering from a bloody and still ensuing Civil War, President Lincoln faced a divided Union a second time with a much briefer message. He concluded his remarks saying, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Each inaugural address documents an era. President Obama introduced the "era of responsibility". This among other themes in his speech, I will go over more tomorrow. I must get back to my vigil, folding laundry and watching the procession and parties which follow the swearing in of the highest office in our country.

(If you would like to read each inaugural address, go here.)