Inaugural thoughts

Somehow, Rice is a little more liberal than college campuses that I'm used to, and many classes were rearranged for today's inauguration, which lots of people watched on campus. I joined them, and I'm glad I did. And while I'm surely entering blog-cliche-land by doing this, here are a few scattered thoughts:

I enjoyed the quartet performed just before the oath of office. I rarely think of John Williams as a great composer, even for films (he's tall on simple, brassy bombast and short on subtlety; for my film-scoring money, Thomas Newman is your man), and I'm required as a cellist to remind you that Yo-Yo Ma is overrated (but I like him anyways: he's a superb--but probably not the greatest--classical cellist, and I appreciate his efforts to transcend genres and spread awareness of great music). Other than the fact that the clarinet part seemed to exist only to channel (or rip off) Aaron Copland, it was a great little piece that perfectly matched the tone of the inauguration. It was somber and occasionally dissonant, it had the (again) Copland-esque wide-openness that's uniquely American, and it had moments of genuinely exciting intricacy (right after the clarinet introduces the "Simple Gifts" theme). I was pleasantly surprised, and they did well to class it up after Aretha Franklin's over-divaed "My Country 'Tis of Thee".

I was bothered by commentators' frequent attemps to turn Obama's election into the culmination of the civil rights movement. I doubt that anyone honestly believes that Obama's election marks the eradication of our nation's racial difficulties, and conversely I don't think the goal of the civil rights movement has ever been to elect a black president. I realize that his victory is an important token of how far things have progressed, and I think it's entirely appropriate that the inauguration should occur the day after MLK day, but it's simply inaccurate to speak as though the problem is finally solved.

If you watched the inauguration, you probably noticed that Obama and John Roberts stumbled a bit on the oath of office. I did a little digging, comparing the transcript of what was spoken to the oath as specified in the Constitution. It appears that Roberts made the initial error and prompted Obama incorrectly, tripping Obama up (perhaps he recognized the mistake; he's likely been looking forward to taking the oath for a while) until Roberts corrected the mistake. Interestingly, though, Obama eventually repeated the first (and incorrect) prompt given to him. So if you're starving for another constitutional conspiracy theory to throw at the president, you can complain that he never properly took the oath of office...

And that brings me to my last point:

I'm optimistic about Obama's presidency. I didn't vote for Obama, and he almost certainly will enact policies that I disagree with, but I've spent time sticking up for him among conservatives. Maybe I've been brainwashed by all the Facebook and the YouTube and the Google, but I think the goodwill we've seen towards him is well-founded. I believe he is both intelligent and intellectually honest: despite his far-left record, he's shown moderation, pragmatism, and a cool head since his election, hardly the hallmark of a closed-minded ideologue. I believe that his bipartisanship is more than lofty rhetoric: he has repeatedly sought the advice of his rivals. And I've come around to the idea that these principles--intellectual honesty, restraint, and moderation--are more important than ideological compatibility. The time for shrill cries of "terrorist" and "radical socialist" is over and, in all honesty, never was here. The incoming administration will undoubtedly have its deep flaws, but it's been a long time since we've had the opportunity to let ideological loyalties take a secondary role and unite in optimism for our nation. Maybe we'll end up disappointed by yet another career politician whose campaign message was only rhetoric. But I think that now's a unique opportunity to take a chance, give the benefit of the doubt, and offer hope for the country.