Inauguration
Last week I read a fake interview with President Bush in Rolling Stone that ended this way:
Do you [President Bush] really want to know...[what people want to hear you say as you leave office?] Ok, here it is. You're the child of two emotionally absent aristocrats who denied you any kind of love and affection from an early age. You grew up resentful and lacking completely in natural gifts or curiosity and by early adulthood found yourself desperate to fulfill expectations your parents by then mostly had only for your much more compentent brother, Jeb. You failed every test you ever faced as a young man and were unable to hold any job at all until the age of 45 or so, at which time you decided to try to win some self-respect by going into the family business. You were aided in this quest by a bunch of narrow-minded lackeys and holdovers from your father's administration who every step of the way manipulated your obvious Oedipal resentments to their advantage, enriching themselves and their friends. All you wanted was a pat on the back and a few accomplishments of your own to hang your hat on, but instead you're about to spend the rest of eternity pondering your now-official legacy as the worst and most pig-headed leader in the history of Western democracy, a man who almost single-handedly sank the mightiest nation on Earth by turning the presidency into a $50 trillion therapy session that ended in two disastrous wars, a financial crisis that threatens the entire system of international capitalism, and a legacy of corruption on a scale not seen since the Borgias or maybe Nero. That, Mr. President, is what [Americans are] thinking and not saying to you.
So perhaps you'll understand why I, as a lover of language whose job requires that I survive solely on hope 99% of the time, cried when I watched Obama's inaugural speech today on You Tube. (I had Colloquium at OCC yesterday, and I never managed to get to a TV to watch it.) I, who voted for Bush; I, who still tend to vote for Republicans because one day I'll have money and I'll want to keep it; I, who for all my griping about education must say in all sincereity that in the 8 years of Bush's presidency we've not been attacked on our own soil again.... I cried. And I felt like maybe, just maybe, there's some hope for us yet because not only does the new president speak in FULL SENTENCES CONTAINING ALL PARTS OF SPEECH IN THE RIGHT ORDER, but he spoke to a crowd who hung on every word.
And I, too, found hope. I think - cautiously, anxiously - that we might just come out of this alive.
I re-read parts of the speech and I'm taking it as a call to action. My resolutions this year extended to shedding some excess pounds and eventually quitting smoking. Insteaad, I'm going to take a cue from a stat I heard yesterday that asked how many Americans think they lived up to JFK's call to action when he was elected, to do more for the country than the country does for us. (24%, by the way.) I'm ushering in this new year with a renewed sense of self and purpose. And instead of griping about the fact that I'm turning 30 and I'm old and my students drive me nuts, I'm going to make this the year that I do for others before I do for myself.
So, uh, if I slip up.... Call me on it. ::wink::
Do you [President Bush] really want to know...[what people want to hear you say as you leave office?] Ok, here it is. You're the child of two emotionally absent aristocrats who denied you any kind of love and affection from an early age. You grew up resentful and lacking completely in natural gifts or curiosity and by early adulthood found yourself desperate to fulfill expectations your parents by then mostly had only for your much more compentent brother, Jeb. You failed every test you ever faced as a young man and were unable to hold any job at all until the age of 45 or so, at which time you decided to try to win some self-respect by going into the family business. You were aided in this quest by a bunch of narrow-minded lackeys and holdovers from your father's administration who every step of the way manipulated your obvious Oedipal resentments to their advantage, enriching themselves and their friends. All you wanted was a pat on the back and a few accomplishments of your own to hang your hat on, but instead you're about to spend the rest of eternity pondering your now-official legacy as the worst and most pig-headed leader in the history of Western democracy, a man who almost single-handedly sank the mightiest nation on Earth by turning the presidency into a $50 trillion therapy session that ended in two disastrous wars, a financial crisis that threatens the entire system of international capitalism, and a legacy of corruption on a scale not seen since the Borgias or maybe Nero. That, Mr. President, is what [Americans are] thinking and not saying to you.
So perhaps you'll understand why I, as a lover of language whose job requires that I survive solely on hope 99% of the time, cried when I watched Obama's inaugural speech today on You Tube. (I had Colloquium at OCC yesterday, and I never managed to get to a TV to watch it.) I, who voted for Bush; I, who still tend to vote for Republicans because one day I'll have money and I'll want to keep it; I, who for all my griping about education must say in all sincereity that in the 8 years of Bush's presidency we've not been attacked on our own soil again.... I cried. And I felt like maybe, just maybe, there's some hope for us yet because not only does the new president speak in FULL SENTENCES CONTAINING ALL PARTS OF SPEECH IN THE RIGHT ORDER, but he spoke to a crowd who hung on every word.
And I, too, found hope. I think - cautiously, anxiously - that we might just come out of this alive.
I re-read parts of the speech and I'm taking it as a call to action. My resolutions this year extended to shedding some excess pounds and eventually quitting smoking. Insteaad, I'm going to take a cue from a stat I heard yesterday that asked how many Americans think they lived up to JFK's call to action when he was elected, to do more for the country than the country does for us. (24%, by the way.) I'm ushering in this new year with a renewed sense of self and purpose. And instead of griping about the fact that I'm turning 30 and I'm old and my students drive me nuts, I'm going to make this the year that I do for others before I do for myself.
So, uh, if I slip up.... Call me on it. ::wink::