The why of it

I wanted to add a few words about yesterday's kickoff celebration, which also helps explain the "why" of this trip: Why Sandy and I were moved to travel across the country to be here.

My country's been sick. In fairness to Bush, it started before he got elected to office by a minority of voters. But he represents the apex of the illness; there's a long litany of abuses and incompetence of his administration that I don't need to repeat here. They've left our country facing dire issues. But worse than that, they've sickened our people, because they have upheld, glorified and sanctioned basic human greed. And the fact that Bush could be elected twice made me wonder if, really, he did represent the basic values of my country.

Obama represents a break from that. I say "represents" deliberately, because we right now it's just a promise and a hope. Obama isn't a messiah; he's just a man. Citizens will probalby have to hold his feet to the fire on some issues, same as we do for any politician. And no question, he's facing the worst set of problems since FDR. At the end of the day, or the four years, he may let us down. But from what I've gleaned from his background and experiences, from his public record, from his own voice in his books -- I don't see a man who is motivated by greed. I see a man who has the common good at heart. And that gives me hope.

The other part of the "why" we wanted to make this trip is bigger than just a break in the politics of the last eight years. This inauguration is a marker, the day when the promise of our country is finally realized. It's the promise stated so well in the Declaration of Independence ... "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." For most of our history we did not even come close to realizing that promise "that all men are created equal." When we elected a black man last November we finally made good on it. Not fully or perfectly, because bigotry in all its forms will still exist. But we can now say to any little kid, "You could be president some day, you know," and it will be true. That's not just an inspiration for black kids, it's an inspiration for everyone.

I looked around thousands of faces on the national mall yesterday -- just the ones near me, because it was a sea of faces in all directions; 400,000 faces, is what the Washington Post reported the crowd size at -- and it wasn't just the great music and soaring speeches that was lighting them up. Rather, it's the Turning Point that this all represents. It's pretty electric.

Though the music and speeches were pretty terrific too.

On our way out of the mall, after we got past the masses a few blocks off the mall, we passed a homeless guy sprawled out on the sidewalk in the 30 degree weather, asleep. After the soaring the rhetoric, a reminder of the reality. There's a lot to fix in our country.