I saw history today from a few different positions. I had left for school early today so that I wouldn't be traveling when the actual important parts were happening. I watched the first half of the ceremony in the main hallway of the Central Building on the Metro State campus, along with a crowd of other people, all gathered around the big flat-screen TV they have hanging there. It was CNN.
I took off my hat when Warren started his prayer, and kept it in my hands the rest of the time. A few women were crying during the run-up to the oath of office; one of them a white woman with big poofy blond hair, the other a shorter African-American woman wearing her hair up in a wrap. No big tears, but you could tell their eyes were moist. Right after the oath was finished, the entire hallway burst into applause. I clapped too.
I left after that to try and get something to eat; I hadn't eaten anything at all that morning and was getting a little weak. I ended up in the Tivoli Building, the Student Union, a repurposed old brewery. The administration had set up the Inauguration on a screen in the center of the building, and students were hanging off all three floors that opened onto the atrium, watching his speech.
We applauded there too. It impressed me, Obama's speech, because it wasn't pandering for applause every other sentence. Have you ever watched a State of the Union Address? The President generally speaks for 33 seconds out of every minute; the other 27 seconds are, on average, applause from the assembled senators. Not so here. Obama was forceful and powerful in his delivery, a strong, pointed rejection of the previous eight years. A safe political position, that, since only about 22 percent of Americans have a favorable view of those same years.
I've never felt prouder and, paradoxically, more worried about America. We must not let out current infatuation with our new President to cloud our judgment of his actions. Remember, the core tragedy of the Bush years was not that President Bush made bad decisions -- although he did so in abundance -- but that he dramatically altered the balance of power in Washington to favor the Executive branch. Although we may agree with the President's actions in this new administration, we cannot let this unstable power disparity to escape our condemnation.
For while we may be a government of the majority, we cannot allow the rights of the minority be trampled. Although that sounds odd when speaking about the first minority president, the "minority" is a bigger concept than race or religion or all the rest. The minority is your neighbor that you disagree with, the immigrant cab driver who barely speaks English but gets better all the time, the innocent man held by the government in a military prison. The minority is the Other, the one we don't know.
Above all, do not let your joy override your judgment, your delight disarm your guard, your relief disable your sense of justice. There is plenty of work to do, for sure. Let us strive to make sure it's done right.