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Tuesday, January 20 The Obama Call
Last night I watched the re-play of the amazing WE ARE ONE concert and production in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where performers from Bruce Springsteen to U2, to Stevie Wonder to James Taylor to Mary J Blige sang out to honor Barack Obama. I was moved to tears. In front of the gaze of Abraham Lincoln the great emancipator, a celebration was unfolding of our first black president. Today I watched as Barack Hussein Obama took the oath to become the 44th president of the United States. His speech was moving, powerful, loving and brave and determined all the things we need in a president today. Again I was move to tears. Again I thought of Lincoln and could almost feel him smiling down on us. Today, the day after Martin Luther King Day, an African American has become president of the United States! It just makes you believe that anything is possible for anyone and really, I think that is Obama’s strongest message. We can do anything, if we stay the course, stick to our core values; hard word, loyalty, decency, honor. Watching Dick Cheney wheeled out on a wheelchair, seeing G. W. Bush standing next to Obama looking small and meek, made me think, how the mighty have fallen. Except that I never felt Cheney or Bush were mighty but rather, weak men with access to great power, that they quickly abused. But this is not the day to dwell on the mistakes and the mistake makers of the past, this is a day to dwell on the now and the future. This is not a day to scream at Republicans. This is a day to hold hands with both parties, to stand united against poverty, terror and strife. I do feel that Barack harnessed the great wafts of love, joy and hope from the crowd and sent them back twice-fold with the message; we all must do our part. This is not the time to sit back and wait to be saved by a new president but to jump in and try to change the world. Let us not ask what Obama can do for us, but rather what we can do for Obama. But then this is not his day, this is our day. This is an inauguration of a new kind of thinking. Gone is the you and them. Here is the we and us. Mr. President, I hear you loud and clear and I salute you.
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