YES, I DID

Wednesday 21 January 2009 - Filed under Life Outside Work

Thanks to an unexplained force, I got up at 4.45am to watch the live coverage of the inauguration. And I did. And then there was the celebratory blackout.

It doesn’t matter a whit what a mere stranger 14096 kilometres away thinks particularly in this worldwide flood of adjectives, opinions, and shouts of rapture. But if I were asked to describe the Obama inauguration and keep it succinctly short, I would call it the most glorious victory over cynicism – and to confess, my share of cynicism included.

People on the other side of the globe joke how Canadians like to tell foreigners first and foremost that they are not Americans because that is allegedly the last thing they want to be mistaken for. But fact tells me Americans have reached where they are today just 233 years after the foundation, 144 years since the legal end of slavery, and less than a lifetime since the legal end of segregation. That to me is most extraordinary and awe-inspiring.

As for what lies ahead, only time will tell. Same goes with the assessment of the past two presidential terms. I just want to say, in the most literal sense, God Bless.

(Picture: Amazon)

2009-01-21  »  JK