A Surreal Day

The inauguration was almost surreal. I wasn't sure it was really happening. I almost felt like i was in the Matrix, and was going to wake up to find none of it really happened. We didn't really have a black president. We hadn't really rejected the status quo and thrown our hats into the ring and taken a real chance.

All day long I heard on the radio how people thought the speech was okay, but not one of his better speeches.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

He said everything that needed to be said, and nothing that didn't. I listened in disbelief as one talk show host said there were no great one liners like JFK's now famous "Ask not what your country can do for you" quote.

That's what I liked best about the speech. It wasn't designed or written for sound bites, but for a message outlining the mission ahead of us. It wasn't in a tone of a self-congratulation, of mission accomplished or of arrival, but a call to muster stations.

And if you needed a soundbite, I am fond of the invitation to hostile/difficult nations, nations with perhaps despotic leadership that "we will extend a hand, if you unclench your fist."

Democrat or Republican, black, white or purple, married or single, we must get together or perish. That much seems pretty clear.