This morning, folks are lining up in our nation's capital for a momentous event. It's barely 10 a.m. in Washington D.C., the official ceremonies having just started, but some 500,000 people have already crammed into the Mall to see Barack Obama get sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
It's 'momentous' on more than one level. Of course, as our nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama has a lot to live up to. He must at once be a healer, bridging racial divides that haven't gotten much better since the 1960s (and in some ways seem more fractious than ever) and at the same time serve as an unequivocal champion of black Americans, a symbol for all minorities. He has no choice but to, in a variety ways, through writings and rhetoric, recognize some kind of distinction between minorities and 'white America.' Is this the way it should be? I don't think so; but everyone, including (and especially) the media, will expect it of him. We do not live in a color-blind society. We should, but we don't.
At the same time, he will have to exhibit an understanding that other than native Americans, we all came from somewhere; even 'white America' is comprised of various ethnicities, all have some kind of hyphenated identity (Polish-American, German-American, Italian-American) and there are some among us who strive to identify more with their hyphenated identities than others. Every president is expected to understand this, naturally; but Obama, purely by virtue of the color of his skin, will have this demanded of him. And he will be watched, scrutinized.
All the while, he must be solidly American, never perceived to be anything but tuned into the notion that we're essentially all of one culture in this country. We share an array of common goals, a common currency, common space, common jobs, common interests, for the most part a common language. He must straddle the fruited plain, one foot planted firmly within the ethnic neighborhoods of large cities, the other working its way into the soil of communities in rural Minnesota, where Scandinavian might be as specifically ethnic as anyone ever gets, and much of that phenomenon having gone the way of the family farm as generations passed.
These are tough times; have been for a while. Endless war and financial turmoil, and the continued threat of both, have led to a sense of uncertainty not felt in this country in a long time. Whether it's fair to blame the outgoing president for all of it, or fair to expect the new president to fix it all, that's what's at play here. The onus is on Obama and the individuals he chooses for his staff and cabinet to put things right. And in these times, that is a tall order.
And yet, most Americans think he can do it, or want to believe he can. Poll after poll in the last week has revealed a fresh wave of optimism sweeping through the nation. Whether this is just the blind hope inherent to change or a task Obama will handily step up to (or any president can step up to...) remains to be seen.
For what it's worth, I'm one of the hopeful. It's a step in the right direction, at least a different direction, and sometimes the aforementioned blind hope is all there is to keep us going. In his book, 'The Audacity of Hope', Obama writes of an 'empathy deficit' in our country. I like that phrase. I think it's brilliant in its simplicity, and very true. In battling this phenomenon, in battling our enemies at home and abroad, in seeking to bridge our society, keep us strong economically, environmentally, militarily and spiritually, I wish our new president well.
