Inauguration Day
So today was pretty cool.
It kind of wigs my brain out that it's not "President Bush" anymore. It's been "President Bush" for 1/3 of my life, and before that I didn't pay much attention. Now, suddenly, it's "President Obama" and whoaaaaa. It's kind of the same thing that wigs me about about the new year every year. You just get so used to it being 2008, and then suddenly BAM. 2009. It's jarring to my brain.
So there's that.
Also, it's pretty neat that 50-60 years ago a black person couldn't pick their own seat on a bus, and today we have a (half) black President. That says good things about our country, I think. Yeah, things used to be pretty bad, but look at this progress, and look at what could still be coming in the future! Perhaps someday we will truly get to a point where a person's race is just a meaningless statistic. Watching all this British TV has really got me wishing for what they have, at least on their TV. It's not "a black character", it's "a character who happens to be played by someone with dark brown skin", and that is awesome. We're getting there, slowly but surely. Or maybe I'm just hopelessly optimistic.
Also of interest: Obama mentioned SCIENCE. Like, that supporting science is a good thing. Oh, my heart was happy about that. Education! And research! I could go on and on about how awesome this is, but I will spare you all.
Oh, and a question. At the end of the benediction, when Rev. Lowery referenced that old racist rhyme*, did everyone catch that as a reference to the rhyme? I recognized it and it made me smile that he was taking that old racist thing and turning it into a good rhyme. The rhyme I remember was basically setting up like a heirarchy of races, and he took it and made it into a "hey, everyone's okay!" thing. But it seems that people are all up in arms about it because at the end he said "when white will embrace what is right" and they think he is implying that white people have not been embracing what is right... and I can see how, if you take it out of context, you could get that meaning, but in context you can see that this is not what he is saying at all. SO. My question to you is this: Did you get the reference? Did that last bit seem hateful against white people? I'm really curious about this, because I got it right off and usually I'm one to miss references to, well, anything.
As for me, I watched it at work. I tried to get the streaming video to work on a few different websites, but apparently they were all choked. Or perhaps our network was choked from everyone trying to watch it secretly at their desks. Either way, just before eleven I got fed up, clocked out, and went to our workout room to watch it on the TV in there. A couple other people had the same idea and showed up a few minutes later. I'm really glad I did watch it. I really liked his speech a LOT, thought the "poem" was, well, poem-ey, and liked everything else. The song played by the quartet was beautiful. It made me secretly wish I'd kept up with my clarinet.
What else do I want to remember? Well, I'm still wrapping my brain around the concept of the President changing. Barack Obama, the dude I supported, is totally the President now. My brain hasn't grasped that yet.
I also want to remember how hard the universe tried to make me have a bad day. I hit my head a total of FOUR times, twice within the same second when my car door knocked my head into the door frame, and then I got halfway to work before remembering that I forgot my chapstick. The internet wouldn't let me watch the Inauguration. My elbow hurts like I banged it against something and bruised it, even though there is no bruise. I tried to return my broken rice cooker to a different Ross store only to be stymied AGAIN*. Hawking is going completely insane tonight, with the nonstop meowing and climbing of the blinds. BUT. Despite all of this, I had an excellent day. TAKE THAT, UNIVERSE.
And on that note, I'm going to crawl into bed and read some George MacDonald <3
*I ended up giving up on a straight exchange and just got a stacking cookie cooling rack thingy instead, because I've wanted one of those, too.
It kind of wigs my brain out that it's not "President Bush" anymore. It's been "President Bush" for 1/3 of my life, and before that I didn't pay much attention. Now, suddenly, it's "President Obama" and whoaaaaa. It's kind of the same thing that wigs me about about the new year every year. You just get so used to it being 2008, and then suddenly BAM. 2009. It's jarring to my brain.
So there's that.
Also, it's pretty neat that 50-60 years ago a black person couldn't pick their own seat on a bus, and today we have a (half) black President. That says good things about our country, I think. Yeah, things used to be pretty bad, but look at this progress, and look at what could still be coming in the future! Perhaps someday we will truly get to a point where a person's race is just a meaningless statistic. Watching all this British TV has really got me wishing for what they have, at least on their TV. It's not "a black character", it's "a character who happens to be played by someone with dark brown skin", and that is awesome. We're getting there, slowly but surely. Or maybe I'm just hopelessly optimistic.
Also of interest: Obama mentioned SCIENCE. Like, that supporting science is a good thing. Oh, my heart was happy about that. Education! And research! I could go on and on about how awesome this is, but I will spare you all.
Oh, and a question. At the end of the benediction, when Rev. Lowery referenced that old racist rhyme*, did everyone catch that as a reference to the rhyme? I recognized it and it made me smile that he was taking that old racist thing and turning it into a good rhyme. The rhyme I remember was basically setting up like a heirarchy of races, and he took it and made it into a "hey, everyone's okay!" thing. But it seems that people are all up in arms about it because at the end he said "when white will embrace what is right" and they think he is implying that white people have not been embracing what is right... and I can see how, if you take it out of context, you could get that meaning, but in context you can see that this is not what he is saying at all. SO. My question to you is this: Did you get the reference? Did that last bit seem hateful against white people? I'm really curious about this, because I got it right off and usually I'm one to miss references to, well, anything.
As for me, I watched it at work. I tried to get the streaming video to work on a few different websites, but apparently they were all choked. Or perhaps our network was choked from everyone trying to watch it secretly at their desks. Either way, just before eleven I got fed up, clocked out, and went to our workout room to watch it on the TV in there. A couple other people had the same idea and showed up a few minutes later. I'm really glad I did watch it. I really liked his speech a LOT, thought the "poem" was, well, poem-ey, and liked everything else. The song played by the quartet was beautiful. It made me secretly wish I'd kept up with my clarinet.
What else do I want to remember? Well, I'm still wrapping my brain around the concept of the President changing. Barack Obama, the dude I supported, is totally the President now. My brain hasn't grasped that yet.
I also want to remember how hard the universe tried to make me have a bad day. I hit my head a total of FOUR times, twice within the same second when my car door knocked my head into the door frame, and then I got halfway to work before remembering that I forgot my chapstick. The internet wouldn't let me watch the Inauguration. My elbow hurts like I banged it against something and bruised it, even though there is no bruise. I tried to return my broken rice cooker to a different Ross store only to be stymied AGAIN*. Hawking is going completely insane tonight, with the nonstop meowing and climbing of the blinds. BUT. Despite all of this, I had an excellent day. TAKE THAT, UNIVERSE.
And on that note, I'm going to crawl into bed and read some George MacDonald <3
*I ended up giving up on a straight exchange and just got a stacking cookie cooling rack thingy instead, because I've wanted one of those, too.