YESTERDAY finally arrived. It was the time for swearing in PrezO or "no drama obama" and indeed his speech had no drama and left many who had built up their expectations, let alone requirements, for an over-the-top inaugural speech. It was very "sobering" as most of the press reported and appropriately so.
I watched it in Neukoeln with a nice group of Afrodeutsche(Afrogermans) some of which I had met around town throught he years at the home of Karl and Afrogerman who seems to be quite a "community" leader of sorts.
It was a very interesting backdrop for our CNN and BBC (and tagesschau) beamer-viewing evening.
Aretha Frankin's presence in the ritual was a bit off putting as she has ballooned into a huge sad figure. Rick Warren the conservative right leaning homophobe's invocation was, for me, extremely off-putting. The inaugural poem was conciously low-brow and the reverenc Lowery's final closing invocation was the most moving as it seemed to unearth in few words the spirit that neither MsFranklin nor any of the other honored guests could raise. His final lines
"...Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow , when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right"
which I found to be brilliant, seems to have been misunderstood by all but those who understood the coded language he is so in command of. Black, brown and yellow all refer only to the skintone variations of black americans.
Needless to say there are already insipid biographical documentaries out there already such as this A&E Biography on Google video. (Merriam Webster defines "insipid" as, vapid , flat , jejune , banal , inane mean devoid of qualities that make for spirit and character. insipid implies a lack of sufficient taste or savor to please or interest)
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