Live blogging the Obama inauguration

January 20, 9:46 AMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama walk out of St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

11:45 AM (EST): Obama is on the platform, shaking hands, people taking their seats. Ready to go.

11:50 AM (EST): Diane Feinstein talks about the MLK dream reaching the White House.

11:52 AM (EST): Rev. Rick Warren prays the invocation: Not united by religion or blood, but by commitment to freedom. Treat all living things with the respect they deserve. Calls for new birth of clairty, responsibility, civility. May all people of good will join together for a just society and peaceful planet. Commits Obama and family into divine care. Ends with the (codependent, monarchial, paternalistic) Lords Prayer.

11:55 AM (EST): Aretha Franklin - My country 'tis of thee.  Now that's what I call RESPECT!

11:58 AM (EST): Justice John Paul Stevens administers oath of office to Vice President Joseph Biden. He may actually keep the oath, unlike outgoing VP Dick Cheney, sitting nearby in his wheelchair (hurt his back while moving boxes yesterday). Cheney inteh wheelchair oddly reminds me of Dr. Stangelove.

12:00 PM (EST): Meastro Pearlman on violin with racially mixeed trio. Tis a gift to be simple -- and talented!

12:07 PM (EST): Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to Barack Hussein Obama, his hand on the Lincoln bible. Roberts without notes. Stumbles over the wording. Awkward!

Now it's up to us to hold Obama's feet to the fire, so the promise and the hope is fulfilled.

12:09 PM (EST): 44th President Bartack Obama prepares to speak. Crowd chants OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA! He thanks Bush for service to the nation and cooperation in the transition.

In teh past, this oath taken in times of prosperity and peace and times of gathering storms. Must stay true to founding documents in this crisis today. Nation at war. Economy weakened by greed and failure to make hard choices. Health care too costly. Schools inadequate. Planet threatened. Nagging fear that America is declining. The challenges are real; may take time, but challenges will be met.

12:12 PM (EST): He hails risk takers and doers, those obscure in their labor, who take us on the road to freedom. For us they faught and died, so we may have a better life. We continue this journey today. Our capacity is undeminished, but starting today, we must pick ourselve up, dust ourselves off, begin again the job of building America. Roads, bridges, electric lines, science, health care. Sun and wind to harvest energy. Universities to resources to educate for the future.

Those who question the scale of our ambitions have short memories. Cynics fail to understand that the ground has shifted beneath them. It's not if governement is too big or small, but whether it works. Those who spend public dollars will be held to account.

Not wether market is force for good or ill, but whether a watchful eye ensures prosperity extends to everyone, not out of chartity, but as a way to ensure the common good.

Not a contest betwen between security and ideals. Power does not entitle us to do as we please. Humility and restraint. To terrorists, you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you, for our patchwork heritage is our strength not our weakness.  Civil war and segregation shows us that the old hatreds can pass. Americans will play a role to usher in new era of peace. It's what you build not what you destroy that matters in the world now. Open your hand and unclench your fist.

Do not ignore our effects in the world. The world has changed, and we must change with it.

 12:24 PM (EST): Our challenges and how we meet them may be new, but our values and principles are old and true. So we now need a new era of responsibility. Duties to ourselves, the nations, the world. The price and promise of citizenship.

Mark this as a day of rememberance, who we are, how far we have traveled. He recalls the war of 1812, the nation's future in doubt. The city and country came forth to meet the common danger.  In this new winter of our hardship, we move ahead with hope and virtue. We will say that we were tested, but we did not turn back or falter. We carried forward the gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

12:28 PM (EST): Two million are gathered in DC for this 18 minute speech, with vague tonal allusions to JFK and FDR, but underplayed, which is seemly.

12: 29 PM (EST) Poet Elizabeth Alexader reads "A praise song for the day." Our ancestors on our tongues. Repair the things in need of repair. We encounter each other in words. We need to see what's on the other side. We go down the road. We built brick by brick the glittering edifices. Praise song for the day, for every hand-lettered sign drawn on kitchen tables. What if the mightiest word is "love?" Anything can be made. Any sentence begun on the brim, on teh cusp. Praise song for walking forward in that light.

12:33 PM (EST) Final benediction. True to thee Oh God, and true to our native land. Pray for our nation and the community of nations. Work through faithful leadership tio restiore stability. Delivery us from exploitation of the poor and favoritism for the rich. We seek forgiveness in a spirit of unity and cooperation. (Obama and Biden listen with eyes open, I notice on the TV screen; eyes not closed in prayer.) May we do justice and love mercy. Say Amen!

12:39 PM (EST): Navy chorus sings national anthem. (I move it be changed to "America the Beautiful").  Now its all over but the handshakes and the eternal punditry, says this pundit.

Other Examiner stories
on Inauguration Day 2009

Inauguration Roundup

FYI: January is the anniversary for the 1776 publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Please click for my columns on Paine's life and work. 

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