Walking In Wuhan

When I was younger, I used to spend quite a bit of time with my great, grandfather. We'd play dominoes, watch baseball and generally just hang out -- I guess that's really the limit of possibilities with a 10-year-old and someone in their upper-70s. He had a gravelly voice and a slight twang thanks to being reared in Kentucky. My mind slipped to him as I drove in to work today listening to NPR's coverage of the inauguration. I don't know how he would feel about a black president, but I kept thinking back to a one-word phrase he always used -- copacetic. You'd ask him how he was doing, and that was his answer. A short, succinct way of saying that he and everything around him was doing alright.

That's how I felt today, watching Obama take the oath of office. Copacetic. Some people immediately said the speech wasn't as soaring as those in the campaign and sounded somewhat like an acceptance speech, but it was exactly what the country needed to hear.

I thought this part was particularly germane:

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. This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]." America.

In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

We need smart government working for the betterment of all people. But that also must go hand-in-hand with personal accountability and responsibility by those who want improvements. Since Nov. 4, Obama's team has been decisive, quick and efficient. Today's speech was a call to action in many ways for what will surely be tough times ahead, but at the same time, I had this feeling that after eight years, everything -- at least for today -- is copacetic.

[ http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/ ]