Power-Outage Blogging The Inaugur-A-Palooza
I never thought losing power in a snowstorm could be so blissful. No more inescapable messianic Inaugur-a-gushing. Crank the woodstove, tell the complaining electronics-jonesing kids how good they have it, what it was like back in pioneer times when I was a kid. Send them out to shovel the drive, broom off the woodpile and bring in wood.
Like I said, I’m all done with the hurl-blogging, planning on maintaining some decorum during this historic time. After all, it is magnificent, once you get past the half-filled suit, the big question marks, and the endless rhetoric, that this great nation has elected a black man and is set to transfer power in an entirely routine manner, the gushing notwithstanding.
One thing though, one of my favorite pompous, preachy windbags, Bono, yapping on about the American Dream. Caught that on the radio. ”It’s not just the American Dream, it’s the European Dream, it’s the African Dream, it’s the Muslim Dream … ” something like that. Actually, the European Dream is socialism, the banning of any speech that might hurt non-European feelings, and a United States that still keeps the world safe and does all the heavy lifting, but stops first and asks itself at all critical junctures, what would Belgium do? The African Dream, near as I can tell, is becoming a dictator, getting rich and slaughtering the next ethnic group over. The Muslim Dream is killing all infidels who refuse to submit and restoring the Caliphate.
Of course the American Dream is the world’s dream. Much of the world, however, has indicated it isn’t interested in the responsibility that goes with freedom, or the cost that must be paid for it, and is so busy arguing over details that it can’t see the big picture. Much of the world would rather come here and get the American Dream in America, rather than go to the trouble of building a great city such as this one on its own hill. Maybe because much of the world recognizes that their own countries and societies are so hopelessly mired in ancient animosities, archaic belief systems and more recent bad ideas, that they may never be able to achieve escape velocity from the past. Because unlike this great nation, most others are not hardwired for freedom and equality the way that this one, even with its often contradictory and violent history, has been from the start. That is why it has been America’s mission and its burden, as our nation reached adulthood, to share those things with the world, giving blood and treasure along the way, not just for them but for ourselves as well, to make the world a better place. There are some people out there who get it, who are trying, and with American help, might achieve it. Maybe Barack Obama has the stomach and backbone to continue with George Bush’s plan of spreading the dream, which is our nation’s best hope for a secure and prosperous world. I hope so.
OK, sermon over. That’s my own “I have a dream” speech. But I’d like to go out on a low note, nitpicking a rapturous excess of suckupage by one of my favorite whipping boys. AP: Obama’s very view from the Capitol as he takes the oath will sing out about his place in history. The occasion calls for symbolism and who could blame anyone for seizing on some? AP gushfest fails to note, however, that the struggle to end slavery that is embodied by the view along the mall actually has nothing to do with Obama, whose East African forebears were not involved in any of that, though his white mother’s people included some slave owners. AP also cites the legacy of World War II and the Cold War in the view, which is a little ironic, seeing as Obama’s rhetioric, until he began picking up bits of the Bush admin’s foreign policy, was all about walking away from those global responsibilities and negotiating with megalomaniacs and terrorists to get them to please play nice.
Speaking of legacies, CNN reports that more than two-thirds of blacks think Obama represents the fulfillment of MLK’s dream, and notes some mixed feelings.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:17 pm on Monday, January 19, 2009
3 Responses to “Power-Outage Blogging The Inaugur-A-Palooza”
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January 19th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Tomorrow will be a ‘black’ day for America.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
[...] Moderate Voice, Scared Monkeys, Jules Crittenden, Michelle Malkin, Wake up America, Macsmind, Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, Clayton Cramer’s [...]
January 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
There is at least one large advantage to having elected Barack Obama to the presidency. As the first (half) African-American president, he’s going to be forced to weigh options and deal with reality, not idealism. He cannot afford to let rhetoric and ideology screw up his legacy.