I watched today's inauguration in a conference room at the office. My coworkers and I cheered and applauded, stood in honor at times, wept, laughed, high-fived, and witnessed history.
Where were you when America got a second chance?
For a complete transcript of the inspiring yet sharply serious first speech of our 44th president, click here. At first I was going to pull quotes from it and copy them here. Then I read a story in the Los Angeles Times, offering feedback on the speech from contemporary writers, that prompted the tears to gather again. I encourage you to read it.
Here's a sampling:
"He is our first (in the best sense of the word) aristocratic president," said author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell. "Bush was a buddy. Clinton was the kindly uncle. Obama is a prince."
And yet, Obama is also a writer, and writers were not at a loss for words. Author Ron Carlson was watching the president's syntax. "What courage," he said, "to use a complex sentence talking to a million people! By expecting the best of us, he just might get it."
Nonfiction writer Mark Kurlansky said the speech "was the most sophisticated view of the world and our role in it of any inaugural address in history."
Photo above courtesy www.whitehouse.gov
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