OVER TO YOU

And what an historic day for America and the world. An African-American sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Barak Obama inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol which was built by slaves. His hand on the Bible on which his hero Abraham Lincoln was sworn in 1861. People tend to forget that back then the man who would become The Great Emancipator said, in his inaugural speech: ‘I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.’

Little wonder that the sea of hope, of millions of faces (black and white) that spilled from the Capitol building to the Reflecting Pond to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial today, brought memories of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s which led to his death.

Little wonder that few believed we would see such a day as this in our lifetime. King’s dream and his death hung in the air today. In fact, at the first glimpse of Barack Obama inside the Capitol Building, as he walked to his destiny, he looked like a man being led to the gallows.

The weight of the world on his skinny shoulders. I flashed back to the funeral of Martin Luther King four decades ago at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Outside, quarter of a million black voices chanted the name of their last hope – Bobby Kennedy. I was walking right behind him and stared as his hunched bony shoulders and thought: What a weight to put on any man. He was assassinated eight weeks later.

Today President Obama committed to shoulder that weight well. On the surface, his speech was not his best. A bit of a let-down. It did not have, as expected, a line that would identify him and his presidency. Not like JFK and his ‘ask not’ nor Franklin Roosevelt’s “fear itself’ branding.

It didn’t have the evangelical zeal or the cadence and colour of his victory speech in November or his ‘time for change’ exhortations on the campaign trail.

But on reflection, it was probably right for the times. Tough times at home and abroad. Tough words for friend and foe. But peace offerings too. He could have milked it. Just three words ‘Yes we can’ would have started an emotional torrent that would have swept that crowd, made people weep, and gone on forever.

He talked about facing common dangers in the winter of our hardship. Lectured his people to ‘put away childish things’. Chastised his predecessor’s government for ethical lapses. And warned terrorists and dictatorships he would be no patsy. That they would be judged by their own people ‘on what you build, not what you destroy’.

It is hard to believe that it is less than two years ago on an equally cold day in Springfield, Illinois, an upstart new Senator, and black as well, announced he was running for president.

Obama said back then he was running ‘not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.’

Let the transformation begin. And hang on to your hat. Two quick points. Wall Street didn’t like the speech. It dropped 300 points –the worst inaugural day ever.

And Obama’s nerves didn’t get the better of him when he seemed to stumble taking the oath. The Chief Justice stuffed it up.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008