Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Inauguration



It is odd working from home on a day like today. I got to watch the Inauguration and President Obama's speech - but not with a crowd. So I listened like I would watching with Ed (as opposed to cheer as it seemed many in the streets did).
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I can't critique the speech. I think it was moving and touching, but it was very personal. He reached out to people's heart in the speech. If, like me, you were willing to be drawn in - or even hoped to be, it was great.
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But I don't know how it played to those who still worry about him as President.
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I will say that the pool video artists and editors SUCK. Whoever they were, they know nothing about the cadence and emotion of a Black Speaker. And whatever else he is, President Obama is a wonderful, gifted black speaker. The camera, seemingly afraid of viewers A.D.D., cut away from Obama's pauses to random faces the crowd, diminishing the effect of the pause and the following words. The faces, a diversely appropriate mix of races and incomes, were meant to be moving to the viewers - but the words were enough. In fact the words were what we tuned in for.
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It was the heavy hand of a video director who no longer trusts the American people to recognize emotion and true commitment. And I only mention it because it is the same heavy hands that insist on telling us what our politicians are saying. Spinning, okay lying, in order to drive us apart.
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I hope Obama can end some tiny part of this process. I hope that people heard the speech for what I heard - a praise of the people of the country and a call to action to make it whole again.