President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and his daughters Sasha (L) and Malia wave after Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on the West Front of the Capitol as his wife Michelle looks on January 20, 2009 in Washington. Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States. (view BBC video image slideshow - click photo) Caption Credit: UPI - Image Credit: UPI Photo/Mark Wilson/PoolGLObama Historyia Turns To Buzz Kill
The media coverage of the inauguration of our first elected African-American man as President of the United States, as they presented it, was all about the GLOW … did you feel it?
It brink-ed upon a form of hysteria about the history - Historyia - that was being made with the tradition of a smooth transition of power we have come to assume here in the United States.
Days before this day it was roundly touted the attendance would be estimated in millions and swell upwards to as much as six million people. Yesterday, news readers toned it down a bit by stating a figure of over a million to as much as four million … then later, that the attendance could be as much as two million. This morning, soon after President Barack Obama gave his inauguration speech the report stated the he gave his speech in front of “Hundreds Of Thousands” of well-wishers lining the mall in Washington DC.
Reality has a way of sneaking up on media hype and BUZZ … and killing it.
Take for example his inauguration speech – We, at MAXINE, wish we had a line by line veto on some of what he said … and were able to curtail the poem … and update the invocation prayer delivered by 87 year old Rev. Lowery - he didn’t have to continue to call out and marginalize the majority of voters (the white race) that helped Barack Obama arrive to take the oath of office. After all, wasn’t a black man just sworn in as the leader of the most powerful and free nation on Earth?
Barack Obama delivers Inaugural Day speech to hundreds of thousands massed on the mall in Washington D.C. (Speech video - click photo). Image Credit: BBCPresident Barack Obama’s inauguration speech – The Good (not vetoed)
My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
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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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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.
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The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.
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And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
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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.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.
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But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.
President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech – The Buzz Kill (vetoed)
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
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The state of the economy calls for [Governmental] action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
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To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
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What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
Reference Here>>
Hold on to your wallets for it is the taxpayer that will foot the bill and pay the price of this new era of responsibility.
The ultimate buzz kill came from Reverend Lowery when he decided to rise up an old sixties tome that had little relevance to the importance of the day and an insult to most of the people who brought this day about.
After Obama's inspirational speech, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights icon and a pastor known to speak his mind to power, opened his benediction with the first words of the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing (YouTube video - click photo). Image Credit: Ron Edmonds/APText excerpted from the benediction delivered by Rev. Joseph Lowery –
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day:
when black will not be asked to get in back,
… when brown can stick around,
... when yellow will be mellow,
... when the red man can get ahead, man;
and when white will embrace what is right.
Reference Here>>
Today, a black man was just asked to “get in back” … of a one-of-a-kind, custom built, attack proof Presidential Cadillac limousine by a majority of voters that happened to be white and driven to live with his family for at least the next four years … in the residence of the First Family, The White House.
All hail to President Barack Obama. He is our President and may he be blessed with the special wisdom to lead ALL of the people of this special and great nation of ours.
And finally, the stock markets closed with a major downturn in its vote of confidence for the new and decidedly lopsided tax and spend power structure that came to pass this Inauguration Day.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average yesterday fell 4 percent, a dive of 332.13 points to 7,949.09, the biggest Inauguration Day drop in the Dow's 112-year history.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 5.28 percent, closing at 805.22 Tuesday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 5.78 percent, or 88.47 points, to close at 1,440.86.
This is a grand beginning to a Carter’s Second Term … let the ramped up government meddling begin and kiss good-bye free market Capitalism as a social system based on individual rights. Inflation and recession will live together again, as it did when Jimmy Carter was President, during the term of this 44th presidency.
