Washington Awakens With Inauguration Buzz
| |
The Day Has Come : Pride, Patriotism To Take The Stage As Barack Obama Makes History
WASHINGTON -- Some inaugurations soared with hope: "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans," President John F. Kennedy proclaimed in 1961.
Others were more subdued, if not stifled, such as on Jan. 21, 1985 -- "an inauguration Day like no other," The Washington Post wrote. Icy winds and bitter cold forced Ronald Reagan to take the oath of office before 1,200 people inside the Capitol Rotunda, and the traditional parade was canceled.
And one was both dull and deadly -- William Henry Harrison's inauguration in 1841. He spoke without coat or hat for nearly two hours in a snowstorm on the East Portico of the Capitol. One month later, the 68-year-old Ohioan was dead of pneumonia, the first president to die in office.
Today, the country likely will see drama as Barack Obama becomes the first African-American president. Like all inaugurals, it will be a powerful symbol of American unity that has endured for more than two centuries.
"(Today) we will come together as one people on the same Mall where Dr. King's dream echoes still," Obama said yesterday, invoking the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the national holiday in his honor.
"The inauguration of American presidents is one of the most significant political acts in the world today, and that has been true for more than 200 years," said Peter Schramm, a political science professor at Ashland University. "Why? It's because the Americans invented peaceful transitions of power."
That tradition, to be watched on television by billions around the world, will continue when Chief Justice John Roberts swears in Obama around noon on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. After a much-anticipated inaugural address, Obama will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a customary luncheon in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, and their wives then will ride in the 56th Inaugural Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, and later visit the 10 official inaugural balls.
Among those in Washington to watch today's inauguration will be Beatrice Bridges, 66, a retired teacher and former state government worker from Columbus -- a black woman who "never, ever thought I would see the day when an African-American would be elected president of the United States. This is very historical for me. I just wanted to be a part of it."
For Obama, a skilled orator, the challenge will be to give hope to Americans in despair over rising unemployment and a slipping stock market. It is a time for graceful rhetoric, not 10-point plans to revive the economy.
"Obama's strength is these kinds of speeches," said Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California, Davis. "He's got to be careful he doesn't promise too much, but without a doubt, he's got to make the speech inspirational and implore confidence in the American people."
An inauguration is more than just a speech and parade. Presidents have broad authority to change policy through executive orders. Obama has talked of signing orders -- perhaps as soon as today -- that would close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; end the policy of "don't ask, don't tell" for gays in the military; and relax a federal ban on embryonic stem-cell research.
For example, the day Richard Nixon was inaugurated in 1969, he issued an order that dramatically reorganized the National Security Council to give national security adviser Henry Kissinger greater authority to manage foreign affairs. The order allowed Nixon and Kissinger to keep much of the government in the dark as they secretly negotiated their diplomatic opening with China.
But the day rises and falls on the speech. Kennedy's 1961 address, Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address in 1865 and Roosevelt's 1933 address are considered the gold standard, according to historians who concede that most inaugural speeches range from ordinary to monumental mistakes.
"(John) Adams wrote an inaugural address that was just boring -- one sentence was 700 words long," said Paul F. Boller Jr., a history professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and author of five books on the presidency.
Boller said "it was so cold out" during Harrison's speech "that no one on the platform was even listening to it. I think he was trying to show his stamina because he was the oldest elected president at the time. But it turned out he couldn't take it."
Although Harrison was the only president who died because of his inauguration, other inaugurals have been nearly as calamitous. James Buchanan in 1857 cheerily dismissed slavery as a "matter of but little practical importance" because he said the U.S. Supreme Court would soon settle the question with the Dred Scott case.
What Buchanan did not reveal, according to John Milton Cooper Jr., a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was that he had "actually influenced and knew how the Dred Scott decision was going to come out." The court ruling, which prohibited slaves from becoming citizens, helped spark the Civil War.
By contrast, in the closing days of the Civil War in 1865, Lincoln's speech was only a handful of paragraphs that included the immortal line "with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in."
In 1933, during the height of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt soothed a jittery nation by saying "that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," pledging that if Congress failed to act, he would as president.
"Shorter is better than longer," said Ray Price, who wrote Nixon's 1969 and 1973 inaugural addresses. "Bear in mind, you have a lot of people standing up, and you don't want to keep them standing too long and wear out your welcome.
"And it's a huge audience and a varied audience," Price added. "It's not a partisan audience. It's the broad sweep of the nation and the world. And you always have to remember you are accepting the presidency of the United States."
Among those in the audience will be Matthew Brigstock, 14, of Dublin. After two years as one of the Obama campaign's youngest activists, he arrived in Washington yesterday with his father, David, to pick up swearing-in-ceremony tickets from Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus.
Young Brigstock donated his allowance to Obama's campaign and made hundreds of phone calls and organized events for his candidate. Among his achievements: a MySpace Web page, Kids for Obama, that reached 600 members.
Although he knows his seats are so far back that he might see the event only on one of the more than 20 JumboTrons around the National Mall, the teen is overjoyed to be here.
"Hope and inspiration" is what he received from Obama, Brigstock said. "That's what I hope to do one day. I really just want to be here."
Nearly a dozen military members from Ohio stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington will see the swearing-in ceremony of their new commander in chief after receiving tickets courtesy of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
One Columbus resident who badly wanted to be on hand to witness history is Tanea Staples, 11, who has been fighting valiantly against a brain tumor even as she ardently followed Obama's campaign.
But Tanea, who received a call and tickets from GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township after her aunt contacted him, is too ill to come to Washington, said her aunt, Stephanie Ivory.
"She still wanted to go; she really wanted to be there," Ivory said. "We have the day planned to watch on TV. Hopefully, the next four years, she will get to see it."
DR. MLK JR: STRUGGLING NOT TO LOSE HIM
SleptOn.com: Remembering King's Overlooked Critique Of Exploitation And Militarism
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment