Obama’s Last Inaugural Address

  

Listening to the speech makes me think that living in this planet is simple. Humanity is guided by basic inalienable rights: the right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness. Inaugural speeches are carefully made for posterity so that they are remembered and will be relevant for the next many hundred years. And as such, a good inaugural speech must talk of the basics and the constants and founding documents & declarations but also about new ideas & technology and the promises for posterity.

An inaugural speech may be just a sound bite of inspiring & stirring words, but, for me and for others in this planet, the rhetoric can be the first act that may guide succeeding acts, or policies, or programs or laws. It should be the narrative framework of governance. President Obama’s inaugural address was a moving speech because not only does it remind us of our basic rights, the speech articulates the “constants in our character” as the “celebration of initiative & enterprise, our insistence on hard work & personal responsibility.” 

The Obama narrative reminds the world that they have come a long way. They have to remind themselves that their forefathers & mothers have exchanged a monarchy system with a “government by the people & for the people.” As such a society which is 1% rich and 99% poor is so out of context with their history as a nation. And the great task of maintaining and improving a nation is not the monopoly of government. 

The American dream is indeed a “brand” and President Obama had to articulate that again & more in an inaugural address. And that American brand does NOT exclude the work of women, nor wives nor daughters nor the rights of gay brothers & sisters. Obama said, and I quote, 

“It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began, for our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts….Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.”

The people of the United States have just been through super storm SANDY, just as we have been through typhoon BOPHA & the Davao January flood and so addressing climate change is so right. Obama made a reference to the past and to the future generation and that the past & future are not disjunctive ones.  The American life is a journey with many lessons. Obama said, “We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

An inaugural speech which makes a reference to the disadvantaged & the vulnerable will always ring true to those of us working with the poor. Obama said, “For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss or a sudden illness or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative.”  

picture credit : Barack Obama FB page