2008 Blogs

Watching history in the making

01/21/2009

People of my generation know where we were when we learned of President Kennedy's assassination, and the images of the funeral cortege are vividly imprinted on our minds.  My students know where they were when they heard about the 9/11 attacks.  In a similar (but much more uplifting) way, images of Barack Obama's inauguration now have become an indelible part of people's  memories the world over. I will never forget where and how I watched this inauguration, eagerly searching my laptop for a reliable feed, clinging to every word that came through a headset/microphone positioned by a friend's television back in Richmond, Indiana.

I stayed up past midnight (we are 12 hours ahead) so I could hear his address and watch the hundreds of thousands of people who made the trip to Washington, D.C., to become part of history.  As President Obama said, even as little as sixty years ago, his father could have been refused service in a restaurant, and now his son holds the highest office in the land.  Most definitely, Obama's story gives us  reason to be optimistic. Thousands of miles from home, I could sense the crowd's exhilaration, the unprecedented hope, and the tearful joy of this historical moment.

As I scanned the faces of people eagerly watching Obama's address, my hope was that Americans take his message of unity and cooperation to heart.  We cannot expect this one man to do it for us--it will take all of us workign for the greater good in this new (and I believe long overdue) era of responsibility.  As the President said:  "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."  These are the people who are the backbone of our country, and I expect that each of you knows someone who fits this description. We, as a nation, face many challenges, but we have the tools to deal with them--as President Obama elaborated:  "those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. "

An aside--as a historian, I cannot help but be delighted with President Obama's awareness of history and its significance for our present and future.  It sent tingles down my spine knowing that he took the oath of office using the Bible from President Lincoln's inauguration.   He is a voracious reader, an inspiration to us all.  In addition to many works of history, some of his favorite books, according to his Facebook page, are Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Parting the Waters (by Taylor Branch), Robionson's Gilead, Emerson's Self-Reliance, The Bible, and Lincoln's Collected Writings.  Have you thought about what you would list as your favorites?

Back to Obama's message.  I'm giving a lot of thought to what I can do.   For the present, I can be (as the Fulbright literature explains) a cultural ambassador, taking part in a mutually beneficial exchange.  I go out on the street with a smile on my face, making an effort to converse in Vietnamese, then smiling some more.  I try to listen thoughtfully and appreciatively, absorbing as much as possible so I can share it with my students back home.  These are just a few items, for starters.  Now, what about you--what are you going to do?