The blogs will be overflowing today with intensely personal reflections on this historic date of January 20, 2009. And as tickled as I was to watch the former president fly away from Capitol Hill this morning (yes, I’ll admit I was screaming FASTER! FASTER! at the tv) there was something else that was mentioned several times by reporters and commentators that resonated even more profoundly for me. It had nothing to do really with the color of skin of our new President, or his faith, or the long march to freedom long overdue people of color, or his promises to again live by the rule of law which sounded so delicious to my ears burned by 8 years of the Bush monarchy. No, what kept rolling over and over… …in my mind and heart was this: that 44 times in 220 years, the office of commander in chief and president of this nation has been handed over miraculously without a coup, without dissent, without mob action, or threat. Think of that. How many countries can say that during their entire history, the change of command always took place peacefully and in full view of the populace?
Today, for the first time, the impact of that knowledge hit me in the heart as perhaps the most symbolic representation of the true power of this nation. I know some of us feel the 2000 election was stolen from Al Gore and we have had to deal with four assassinations in this country’s history plus a Civil War. But no incoming President has wrenched the office from the incumbent by killing him off or assembling tanks on the White House lawn and forcing him out at gunpoint.
There is within the framework of this system–however unwieldy, massive, often unresponsive and expensive–a tradition of a peaceful, respectful and orderly change from one administration to another. The torch is passed invisibly through a form of pomp and circumstance that provide us with a comfort so few other countries can imagine let alone experience. I marveled at my own lack of that awareness before today. How many Presidential inaugurations have I witnessed personally–without revealing my age? 11. As a young girl, I wept through the recording of the oath administered to Lyndon Johnson in 1963. A product of the television era, I dutifully felt called to be at most of the others live or on the evening re-broadcasts. And now I’m sitting in front of this computer awestruck by something I have always taken for granted: the PEACEFUL and NON-VIOLENT transfer of power of the highest office of this nation. So THAT is what I celebrate today.
Perhaps I’m more aware of it now because of this service I have chosen: teaching people how to feed themselves under difficult circumstances. So much of what I read from my colleagues in other places revolves around their ability or inability to work in areas of civil unrest or war or famine created by dictatorships or coups or failed political systems. How can a nation rise to its full potential, let alone survive, when it is constantly at war with itself? How can the wounds of poverty, hunger, epidemics, inadequate sanitation or unequal educational opportunities even become part of the conversation within a nation where all its resources are bled away by groups greedy to be top dog? And while we as a nation certainly have our own bloody ugly laundry to wash, we don’t burn down the laundromat to hide it. That is the powerful process that has allowed us to grow to the strength and dynamism that is a hallmark of this country.
So while so many of us justifiably are whooping and hollering and raising beer steins to toast our nation’s true coming of age with the installation of Barack Obama as President numero 44, I think I’ll sip tea. Tea instigated the whole commotion that eventually birthed this country. And drinking tea stirs up for me the cherished beliefs and hopes entwined within these traditions that somehow survive to embrace and nurture us. Yes, I’ll make a little pot of Constant Comment and toast our today’s celebratory transition of power as well as all the dreams this president symbolizes for me personally. So Mr. President, here’s to you, to us and your successful leadership–with a dash of sugar and a slice of lemon.
And tomorrow I’ll crank up the washing machine and go to work with you.
