I don’t always agree with President Bush – in fact he worries me a lot – but I was cheering for him during the inauguration ceremonies Jan. 20.
He is, after all the President of the United States. I am always moved by the pomp of inaugurals and presidential funerals because they honor the man some, but mostly the office. Presidents come and go, and they leave a good mark, a bad mark, or no mark at all.
But the office endures, in the dignity and power guaranteed to it by the Constitution of the United States. As long as the office stands, the land will stand, and it is a soaring moment whenever it is put at center stage by the people it serves. On Inauguration Day, there was the President of the United States, and there was George W. Bush.
And the day was special because of what Mr. Bush had to say. He called his inaugural address “the freedom speech,” and by the end of it, I was smiling.
“Eventually,” said the President, “the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul.” The words brought to mind my dear friend, a proud, fiercely intelligent woman, 54 years old, who loves the United States of America and in our frequent email exchanges is openly admiring of the Constitution. We have an ongoing dialogue about freedom and the happiness it ensures. Freedom is simply the power to make choices, not only politically, but personally. People without that choice-making power do not enjoy freedom and live in fear. The solution, of course, is to take back power, and that always requires courage.
“The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations,” said the President. “The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it.”
People who have confronted the task, fought the battles, and won the freedom, could not agree more. They, more than anyone, know that in this world it is a time for courage. America, said the President, has accepted that need.
“By our efforts, we have lit a fire in the minds of men,” he said. “It warms those who feel its power. It burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.”
And when it does, he said, it will burn away demons both living and fossilized, not from a person's individuality, but indeed from individuals in their own skin and habits “that may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom and make their own way.”
I knew my friend was not watching the inaugural, and I could not wait to share these words with her. This was the new American world mandate. I emailed her and, quoting from the speech, wrote: “We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.”
When she got back to me, she was skeptical. I was not surprised. She is a Blue Person. She lives in San Diego, but she says, “As far as Bush and his people care about my own voice, and my own freedom, and my own way, I might as will live in Serbia.”
That’s how polarized we are, in this time for courage, the time of Blue People and Red People in the United States. When in the world did we become Blue People and Red People? I think it was toward the end of the first Bush Administration. Now the second one begins, and in the inaugural, at least, there are words of hope.
Jumping into blogville for the first time. Thank you Mike Grant.
ReplyDeleteFrom Austin Tx, which as you know is not exactly Bush country, our president does not look scarey at all, except to academics, environmentalists, aging hippies, and business people still having one foot in college social consciousness. Well, that pretty much covers Austin's demographics except for the rest of the business community more concerned with payroll, shareholder value and keeping our 'urban outdoorsmen' from sleeping, eating and relieving in, on and around their places of business.
Terrorism, nation-building and war do not touch us down here so much, except emotionally, or when we know someone with a family member kicking in doors and facing truly scarey situations. President Bush's inaugural focus on freedom, however, brings together many of the strings of issues I hear/see every day on Fox News. (Now, it should be completely clear....) The degrees of freedom, at stake in Iraq, in Congress, on Sixth Street downtown and even in business officeworkers stuggling with fraud and corruption (mostly with a small 'c'), can lead one to a position of relativism, even though conservatives are usually accused of being totally black or white. Psychologists know that relativism and strict right/wrong beliefs are just two ends of a continuum of defense against fear - possibly learned, possibly inherited, probably both.
My take is that Bush is smarter than expected (by some), more relativistic than feared (by some), and has mostly been a star at doing a darn good job of dealing with what might be called an un-pinned granade at a church social. 911 certainly took the smile of his first inauguration. I pray for no repeat.
Jim McDonald
Nothing would please me more than to share your sentiments about the second inaugural address by George W. Bush. I did not witness the event for fear of losing a meal to the porcelin fixture. I did read the transcript and am not impressed. Although I could not find the exact words in the text it is fair to say that George Bush has called for compromise across party lines on several occasions. That has been a recurrent theme is his words but never his deeds. Witness faith based initiatives, social security, abortion, medical marijuana and much more. Actions speak louder than words and I hear him loud and clear. I believe we share a common view of society Mr. Grant but your optimism about Mr. Bush (I'm unable to call him President) astounds me. Thanks for your BlOG. It's a pleasure to read you again. I loved the column when it was here in San Diego. A Grossmont Student.
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