I avoid talking “politics” with friends but today I need to make an exception. Today we inaugurated our newest president of the United States, Barack Obama. I listened to it while I was training someone online.
It’s quite a historic moment. I say that and although I know why… it’s surely not the same understanding or feeling as if I were born just 10 years earlier and lived in that time. I know my history, I’m not ignorant. The closest I came to making it feel very real for me was a recent visit to the High Museum. They had a photographic exhibit displaying our times when we were segregated. The language in the posters. The woman heckling and harassing children who were defying the current system to get an education. The men beating up on some woman coming out from a shopping center while the police just stood there looking. Wow. Visualizing the photos in my head… blows me away just thinking about it. Incredible bravery and desire.
Not all of course, but many of our youth is missing this bravery and desire. Too many excuses to reason why they have not excelled. But no more. 40 years later we have a black president. Not even the small percentage of “sh*t” that happens that we cannot control is an excuse.
President Obama’s speech was full of hope and talk about change. Was inspiring, which is what our nation needed. And I’ve read it a few times now and not easy to pull out a few sections that I felt were very profound.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
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In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
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This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
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We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
It’s not all a bed of roses but today is a great day. We all play a part in moving forward. No one man will do it for us. GBA.
