Inauguration Day 2009

This is a day for memories, hopes, and dreams. A couple of my strongest memories regarding Presidential events include the televised funeral procession for John F. Kennedy. I was three years old and unable to understand the gravity of the situation. The funeral was on a Saturday and I remember my disappointment that cartoons were not broadcast back in that era when cartoons were on television only one day a week. I know now that a lot of hopes and dreams were buried on that day with the young man who personified the potential to let go of the fears that gripped our nation during the 1950's. Fears generated by the Cold War and manipulated by the likes of Senators Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon. 

Another vivid memory is from 16 years ago and the first Inauguration of Bill Clinton. He was the first President to take the oath of office for whom I had voted. I don't remember the words as much as I remember the emotions I felt while listening to Maya Angelo recite the poem she wrote for the occasion. I remember using it in my sermon the following Sunday. 

The 16 years since that day have been difficult. First, from witnessing the disappointment of the Clinton years in terms of political partisanship and his personal failings. Second, from suffering through the eight years of Clinton's successor to the Oval Office, who must go down in history as the worst President in the history of our nation. Eight years ago there was the zealous talk of a permanent Republican majority that sounded a lot like the rhetoric coming out of Germany more than 70 years ago in reference to the future of the Third Reich. Thankfully, both of those regimes had much shorter lives than their deluded visions.

My joy on this day is tempered as our nation struggles to remove itself from the muck of a political, foreign relations, and economic meltdown even worse than that of the Great Depression.  However, the flame of enthusiasm is growing with the televised images of the throngs of people, especially young people, in attendance for the Inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama. 

I find myself hoping this is a day that is meaningful and memorable for my three sons, especially for the oldest two, both of whom voted for Obama. I believe that Obama will be the President that Clinton should have been and Kennedy could have been. A President who energizes and inspires people of every generation with his vision, wisdom, competence, and impeccability. A President who restores a proper sense of community spirit, social and corporate responsibility, political and personal ethics.

My hope is that eight years from now we are all looking back on the greatest eight years in the history and I wish our new President all the best.