Virtuous Citizen

On this day after the inauguration of Barak Obama as our 44th President, the nitpickers and the pundits have begun to splash in the puddles and even pools of unparalleled joy that remain after yesterday's flood. As he spoke of storms, we felt the heavens open in showers of blessing. Now, the day after, things are being said about the things he said.

Like, while he said he was the 44th man who'd taken the oath of office, he was actually only the 43rd, because Grover Cleveland took it twice! And even as he said "man," as grateful as we were for him, we couldn't help but wish for the first woman to take that oath.

On the other hand, the text and tone of his inauguration address is being assessed for what it is and what it is not. Much is being made of it, and rightly so! But not so much that I would be prohibited from adding my two cents.

Cent One: For the first time in my memory, an inauguration address began with "My Fellow Citizens" instead of "My Fellow Americans." I take this to be a significant shift, for in it is an appeal to participation, to engagement, to awareness, and to commitment that simply is not carried in our being merely "Americans."

We are indeed citizens of this republic and of this great experiment in democracy. As such, we share a responsibility-- a responsibility that Obama articulated in part-- for our life together as nation. By reminding us that what we have in common with each other, and with him, is our citizenship, he appealed to less to our emotions and more to our intellects. When he, in another part of the speech, pronounced the end of tribalism, he in effect declared that we are bound together by something that transcends blood and race, and individuals' histories, and groups' self-interests. Our "membership" in America is as citizens. In that sense, the Greater Good, indeed what I would call using an outdated term, the Common Weal, is to be our principle concern and aim.

Cent Two: Along these lines, it was interesting to me what he said at the end of the address, where he remembered for us George Washington's use of the words of Thomas Payne, I think just before he led the Continental Army across the Delaware and toward Valley Forge. Those words were, in part, "Let it be told to the future world... that in the depth of winter, when nothing by hope and virtue could survive...". Ah, I thought, the great irony of that! When in recent memory do we know of "hope and virtue" being the only survivors in the face of adversity? In our time, hope and virtue were among the first casualties of the war on terror, murdered by fear and expediency.

So the man who inspired us to hope and gave us confidence to believe that we could find the courage to hope for real again, after hope was assassinated in the '60's and virtue was stangled in the '70's, now tells us that we might find it in ourselves, individually and collectively, to be virtuous again. Indeed, Obama is calling us to be "virtuous citizens," and is promising us that he, at least, will strive to be one.

What a departure from "Presidency as usual!" What a change from "Presidency as we have known it!"

One final observation: No one I've read seems to have picked up on what I think is the most powerful line in his whole speech: "This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny." Now, I'm not entirely clear what he means here-- because I'm not sure how we go about shaping an "uncertain destiny!" But I am clear that he believes that there is a Providential Demand as well as Guide involved-- so we are not alone! Perhaps because he believes this, and believed it in this way, I actually believe him when he says, "God Bless America."