Like many, I got my feathers ruffled when I started getting emails about how Rick Warren was doing the opening prayer at Barack Obama's inauguration. A slap in the face of the gay and transgender community! Salt on the wound of Prop 8! Petition! Clamour!
And then I read the article in the New York Times. Yes, Rick Warren is doing the opening speech, and yes Rick Warren was a major voice for Prop 8 and against the gay community.
However
"Ms. Douglass noted that the benediction, or closing prayers, would be offered by the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a civil rights icon who has expressed support for gay marriage, and that the Lesbian and Gay Band Association would march in the inaugural parade, the first time such a group would do so."
This puts a new light on things, and is entirely within Obama's way of handling matters. What is he saying with these choices? I believe he's saying, as he did on his election night "I am the President of ALL America." This isn't anything new. Part of the reason I elected him is because he's interested in getting people together in the same room and talking to each other.
Still, note the order.
We are transitioning from a right wing, fundamentalist regime to something quite different. We open this transition with a voice from the Right. A strident voice, loud and harsh. We close the transition with a very different prayer, a different voice, one of civil rights and equality.
I don't think anything Obama does is accidental. I won't be signing any petitions against Rick Warren opening the ceremony. I'm fine with that. His voice is one of the many voices of the American people, and we should not deny him or his followers the right to pray for our president. But at the end of things, it is not his voice that will linger in the air, but another's.
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4 comments:
Great post Dan. I wanted to write something about this today too, including an angle on some screeching about his cabinet picks and any blog post that begins "What was Obama thinking?" in all caps and italics and bolded.
Dan, I appreciate having this different way of looking at the big picture without the usual reactivity. Obama seems to encourage transparency and collaboration with all "Americans"? kmj
all very well to say that we're transitioning to something new, but to me obama's looking more right wing by the hour. he's nodded the appointment of interior secretary to that freakshow from colorado who has a history of supporting bush's neocon brand of environmentalism including:
- voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet
- voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida's coast
- voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects
- voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
- voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands
- threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
- fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill
not to mention nodding an epa head appointment to a woman with a proven
track record of bending over for corporate interests and failing in her duties to address toxics in her position as new jersey's dep head.
and not forgetting that his platform committing to "clean" coal, and nodding an appointment of energy secretary to a longtime proponent of nuclear energy, particularly breeder reactors (which breed massive subsidy because they're economically unfeasable, and breed nuclear weapon proliferation because of the plutonium cycle).
adding that to his abominably hawkish foreign policies, his support of racist institutions like the death penalty and war on drugs... yadda yadda yadda...
this is alexis saying liberal, progressive and far left obama voters got chumped! once again...
ps good pick on labor secretary, though.
I can see how his actions are upsetting, but I wonder how much of it is more cooperation and collaboration rather than support. Obama isnt the only one with something to lose - so are those who have been appointed.
I still dont think any government will truly "fix" the race issue - thats an individual battle. But if he can show that he is able to work with people of opposing views, find common ground, and then still work towards the initial goal that got him elected, that speaks volumes about this administration and sets a hell of an example for others.
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