tempered reflections

I wanted to modify my general inaugural post from yesterday.

I'm really not so cynical, not so down on the new administration. I'm just . . . wary of so many people saying that the simple fact of Obama's installation has "completed" or "fulfilled" MLK's dream. It is only a symbol at this point; it's up to us to ascribe it meaning.

I do understand that last night, with all of its pageantry and the sycophantic adoring language of the folks in the media, was a national catharsis. Yes. Once I grasped that, I easily could agree with those who said that Obama's inauguration closed the door, finally, on Reconstruction. That national wound might indeed have healed.

Also, I took a step back and reevaluated. If not for a certain traumatizing event that occurred a couple years ago, I might have been one of the African-American citizens who cried last night, or on Election Night. It was not so long ago that I held views on race pretty similar to those espoused by President Obama. I can see his ascension in that context. When I think of it, I smile.

I think of my two great-aunts and wish that they had lived to see that moment. I remember, as a teenager in their household, hearing one of them call someone on TV 'colored'. I would have called him 'black'. Twenty years prior, he would have been 'negro'. Just so many iterations of this identity as the years have gone by. I wish I could have heard those two women last night. They would have been awestruck. They may be awestruck yet.

Was it just me . . .

. . . or did it seem like Jon Stewart made it a point, the day that Bush left office, to have pot and sex jokes? Was he just waiting for a more liberal administration? Or were they the only surefire & safe topics to hit?

One last thing.

Some of you who know me in RL know that I have had a blue bumper sticker on my car for more than four years. I'd gotten it during the Kerry/Edwards campaign. It merely said, "We need a better President." After the 2004 election, I kept it as it continued to express how I felt.

I realized yesterday that the sticker was officially out of date.

Today, with black permanent marker, I struck the word 'need'. Over it, I wrote 'HAVE'.