Living the dream
There is a Matt cartoon in today's Daily Telegraph showing a newsreader throwing away his script after Barack Obama's inauguration as US President of the US, saying: "....and the whole world lived happily ever after." If only!
But I will be glued like many of us to my TV screen at 4 pm today. I don't remember the British newspapers publishing an order of ceremony, as they have done on this occasion, for previous inaugurations. In that sense what we are witnessing is more like a coronation.
And so it is, since so much hope and belief has been invested in this presidency. Never mind the historic significance of Obama as the first black president, the world needs a leader of substance just now and some are wondering whether this might just be the right man, in the right job at the right time.
I was too young to remember the inauguration of John F Kennedy in 1961, but there are similarities. Kennedy took office in an uncertain world, tired of war and fearful of nuclear Armageddon that was so nearly unleashed during the subsequent Cuban missile crisis.
Kennedy was a young democrat and an eloquent speech maker. So is Obama. Rarely do world leaders have this kind of opportunity to move their fellow citizens through the power of oratory. Expectations are high.
Kennedy's inaugural address was a hard act to follow. It was a message for the world: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foes to assure the survival and success of liberty." Fine words and there were more in conclusion:
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of this world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
Perhaps we should be asking ourselves these questions today. Too often we have looked to the US with our begging bowls. It's no good doing that now. In the same way we cannot look to our governments - they are all too busy bailing out the banks.
But even more will be expected of Obama because every black American will be mindful of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream..." speech in Washington in 1963.
"I have a dream," said King, "that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." The dream was a product of much darker times such as these in Obama's own family. But today the dream is fulfilled and that is what many of us understand by the term: historic.
The whole world will not live happily ever after today's inauguration; neither will Barack Obama. The day after his election win the satirical news sheet, the Onion, declared in jest but with some truth: "Black man given nation's worst job."
Obama inherits a monumental mess of an administration, paralysed economically and out of its depth in foreign policy. Today we might discover a sense, at least, of whether George Bush's nightmare on Wall Street can be transformed within Martin Luther King's vision.
But I will be glued like many of us to my TV screen at 4 pm today. I don't remember the British newspapers publishing an order of ceremony, as they have done on this occasion, for previous inaugurations. In that sense what we are witnessing is more like a coronation.
And so it is, since so much hope and belief has been invested in this presidency. Never mind the historic significance of Obama as the first black president, the world needs a leader of substance just now and some are wondering whether this might just be the right man, in the right job at the right time.
I was too young to remember the inauguration of John F Kennedy in 1961, but there are similarities. Kennedy took office in an uncertain world, tired of war and fearful of nuclear Armageddon that was so nearly unleashed during the subsequent Cuban missile crisis.
Kennedy was a young democrat and an eloquent speech maker. So is Obama. Rarely do world leaders have this kind of opportunity to move their fellow citizens through the power of oratory. Expectations are high.
Kennedy's inaugural address was a hard act to follow. It was a message for the world: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foes to assure the survival and success of liberty." Fine words and there were more in conclusion:
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of this world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
Perhaps we should be asking ourselves these questions today. Too often we have looked to the US with our begging bowls. It's no good doing that now. In the same way we cannot look to our governments - they are all too busy bailing out the banks.
But even more will be expected of Obama because every black American will be mindful of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream..." speech in Washington in 1963.
"I have a dream," said King, "that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." The dream was a product of much darker times such as these in Obama's own family. But today the dream is fulfilled and that is what many of us understand by the term: historic.
The whole world will not live happily ever after today's inauguration; neither will Barack Obama. The day after his election win the satirical news sheet, the Onion, declared in jest but with some truth: "Black man given nation's worst job."
Obama inherits a monumental mess of an administration, paralysed economically and out of its depth in foreign policy. Today we might discover a sense, at least, of whether George Bush's nightmare on Wall Street can be transformed within Martin Luther King's vision.
Labels: Barack Obama, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, The Onion, Washington
posted by Richard Donkin at
2:27 PM
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