Some thoughts on Obama’s inauguration.
My MacBook had a "Countdown until Bush Leaves" widget that has been S-L-O-W-L-Y ticking down for the past five hundred some-odd days. Somewhere around November, I added another widget counting down until Obama took office. Even though for literally years I had been looking forward to Bush’s merciful exit, that climactic moment was outshined by momentous historic occasion that Obama’s inauguration presented.
"This land is your land"
It was both heartwarming and politically satisfying to hear Woody Guthrie’s ballad sung across the Washington Mall on Sunday. As a left-wing version of dog-whistle politics, including Guthrie’s original stanza on the "Private Property" sign could be a signal to those steeped in the long term criticism of capitalism that the unchecked worship of the market over the people was coming to an end.
"God Bless America"
Remarkably absent was any rendition of "God Bless America," the reverential, my country right-or-wrong response to "This land is your land" originally written as a rejoinder to Guthrie’s homage to the downtrodden. God Bless America had been giving new life at sports stadiums and jingoistic rallies since 9/11. While it made sense in the aftermath of that terrible attack, it had been fused with Bush’s overarching message of "you’re either with us, or against us."
"My Country T’is of The"
Aretha Franklin’s passionate rendition of America’s hymn had reflected the full circle of events since Marion Anderson’s then controversial performance at the Lincoln Memorial back in 1938. Whereas before the racists bigots who openly used the word "n-----r" fought Anderson’s performance, now any such views are rightfully castigated as hateful with no proper place in mainstream America. No doubt there remains seams of profoundly racist beliefs in America’s bedrock, but the racist minority is rapidly dying off or being confronted with the inadequacy of their own prejudices.
Aretha’s performance, and the man and country she was serenading, present a new opportunity for America to excise the cancers of racism, bigotry, and contempt for the poor and the brown that has marred our history.
Bush Street in SF renamed "Obama Street"
On the November ballot, SF voters rejected a wonderful wedding of satire and politics in the proposition to rename the city’s main sewage treatment facility after W. On the eve of the inauguration, a group of SF street artists took it upon themselves to present a more moderate and acceptable homage to change by recreating the precise font of the city’s street signs and unofficially renaming Bush street downtown to "Obama Street."
Surely the SF Board of Supes could pay this modest homage to the end of the disastrous era we’ve just exited, and the beginning to what everyone in the Bay Area and the world hopes will be a dramatic restoration of America’s broken promise.