the Moore 4

Rick told me, as I groggily still lied in bed this morning, that I could watch the Inauguration today. (Meaning on our ‘pretend’ TV–Boxee/Hulu)

In between our Arthur fix, I reply.

Later I did tune in, happy that my Luddite self got it all to work, but caught only the last portion of President Obama’s speech. (Or what I could hear amongst little girl voices in the house.)

I was sad I missed the swearing in, but figured there would be coverage of it on Nightly News that we watch via a podcast.

Although I hardly have any political bones whatsoever in my body, I do find this event an emotional, happy and an exciting day for our nation. Mainly for three reasons.

To think back in U.S. history and to now see an African American being elected to such an office is truly a success story for our country. Probably on so many levels that I don’t know about or really understand. To me it speaks of Harmony and Aspiration. I can only imagine how people of color feel today.

Secondly, I like the fact that President Obama has small children. I like being in the ‘same boat’ as someone with some say as to what happens to our most precious ones in our lives. I can’t imagine the President being a father and a ‘current father’, meaning in the trenches now of raising his young girls, that he wouldn’t have children everywhere best interests at heart.

Which leads me to my third reason; I am glad President Obama is young. I mean no disrespect of leaders ‘of age’ in the past. There is certainly something to be said (endless things to say) for living life; having experience and wisdom from over the years. But, I think we need some young blood. Perhaps some new thinking.

As you can see, I have no political platforms to support as this day closes–which reiterates my confession that I profess no political know-how in the least and could be debated under the table in a flash. I just wanted to share this day with my posterity and say, yes, I was here. Even if it is simple thoughts from a tiny American in this vast, incredible country.

What about you? Pen some thoughts to paper tonight, or your blog, or your journal for this Truly is a Historic Day.

Rick’s Take:
I am very much like my sweet wife when it comes to politics. I have never voted (shame on me!) and, for the most part, really have no opinion on anything political. Sure, I have political beliefs that coincide with my religious beliefs and internal values, but I just am not interested in any of the other stuff that goes on around me that has to do with politics. Say what you will about that.

So, over the course of the last few weeks, much of what has been going on with the inauguration has fallen on my deaf ears. I hadn’t intended to watch any of the festivities at all. But when a co-worker posted on Twitter this morning,

“I have a meeting scheduled over the inauguration. I didn’t really want to watch history in the making anyway.”

I have to say it intrigued me a little. Just a little. Well, just enough to crack open my laptop on the train ride this morning to see if I could catch any footage on Hulu. (I watched “24″ this morning and noticed that they were going to be have a live feed on Hulu of the inauguration.) To my dismay, the UTA WiFi bandwidth stinks, and I could only see it in 3 second snippets. That is, it would stop every 3 seconds to rebuffer the stream. At one point, I heard the broadcaster say, “We are only minutes away from the swearing in of Barack Obama as the…” (cut off to buffer.) I was screaming in my mind…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! So, I guess I cared a little more than I thought. :)

I ended up watching the 22 minute inauguration speech at lunchtime on NBC.com and have to say I was fairly impressed with the things President Obama had to say. Time will tell if he is truly the right man to lead us out of the current crises we face as a nation. At least I can say that I heard what he had to say and saw Dr. Martin Luther King’s prediction come to pass. Pretty cool, all in all.

Posted by Shelley