While we must resist the temptation to romanticize this moment into ridiculousness, it is legitimately inspiring.Personally, I think each inauguration is inspiring. Not just from the ceremonial grandeur or the solemnness of it all. Not just from knowing that the person to become president won in the battle of campaigns. Not just from seeing the profound happiness on the family's faces. It's always a great moment, not just for the new president but also America and her children.
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It is the beginning of a more engaged, more hopeful citizenry. With leaders that treat us as more than a 300-million-person focus group, we can effectively hold those leaders accountable. We are no longer a manipulated mass, a nation of children embarrassed by our father's simple-mindedness and impulsive rage. We have stepped into our own power through this election process, grown wiser and more informed than any electorate in decades. Like the wide-eyed children who have found a new hero, we will inevitably be disillusioned, but at least we will be passionate. Indifference and apathy have been replaced with investment and the related risks. I'd much rather live in a country in danger of disappointment than in a nation of indifference.
I do appreciate Martin's poetic optimism. However, it seems to come at President Bush's -- the previous administration's -- expense. That's not what the inauguration is about. We do look forward to a different and hopefully, a better, future, but that doesn't mean the past was dark and ill-fated. Citizens will hold accountable Bush as much as Obama. President Bush did not manipulate us. Neither is he simple-minded or impulsive. By all accounts, he's a decent man and tried leader of eight years. At least have the decency to acknowledge that, even if it's not the popular thing to do.
After all, President Bush never cared to be popular. He cared mostly to do the right thing.
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