Jan 20, 2009 17:28
YouTube is failing me. Where can I get video of the inaugural address that doesn't just constantly pause and eventually stop downloading?
edited to add
I listened to audio from The Guardian.
He started not with "My fellow Americans" but "My fellow citizens." That set the tone of responsibility.
We don't need big or small government, but government that works.
He included nonbelievers in the list of united factions. That is consistent with someone who believes if we face reality with courage and imagination, living in denial of reality is not required in order to sustain hope. His message is everything I like about being nonreligious.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." He pointed out that the founders were in dire peril when they signed the Declaration of Independence. They were willing to sacrifice safety to give us a Constitution with a Bill of Rights. I am thinking of certain people we know who I'm sure are smarting right now, having been identified as cowards beneath the macho exteriors.
And finally, there was more than one rebuke to me in the speech. It was far from preaching to the choir, and I'm not used to that in speeches from politicians.
politics