What Barack Obama's inauguration meant
Jan 26 2009 Agenda, Birmingham Post
Rugby-based historian Anthony Painter asks what Barack Obama’s inauguration as US President represents.
At 6.15am on the morning of the inauguration, it finally became clear to me what the election of Barack Obama meant. The taxi driver taking me to the BBC told me about the reaction of his daughters to the election of the 44th President of America.
They were both excited. They are four and five. They couldn’t wait for the inauguration. The five-year-old had got up at 5.30am. She was so excited, like a young child on Christmas morning. Not only that, but she wanted to spend a few precious moments with her father on this historical occasion just in case he was not back from work for the speech.
There in a nutshell is the meaning – beyond politics, race, celebrity – of the election of Obama. That young five-year-old had the gates of history opened to her young mind. She has been touched by inspiration. She wanted to share that with her father. Obama energises and inspires. He brought that family together for a special moment. What the inauguration was about was the hope and togetherness this President can offer.
Barack the President may disappoint. He is a politician and politicians have to make tough choices that, in the well worn language of Abraham Lincoln, cannot please all of the people, all of the time. There is expectation. When we are faced with a charismatic and history-making figure we tend to project our desires on to them. That has to be a recipe for disappointment for many.
But that five-year-old girl lives in Birmingham. And she lives in Gaza City. And she lives in Nairobi. You can find her in Seoul.
Of course, she also lives in Chicago, in New Orleans, in Birmingham, Alabama, but also in Orange County, California, Boulder County, Colorado and Macomb County, Michigan.
When she struggles at school she now has an added source of strength. When she sees those who are less talented than her or who strive less but nonetheless succeed, she will know to persevere rather than relent.
She will know that no matter how dire society seems or how desperately far we are from justice, that history tells us that, with a collective spirit things can change.
The death of Emmett Till – the young boy brutally lynched in Money, Mississippi for getting a bit ‘fresh’ with a white shop attendant – was not in vain. Now Congressman John Lewis – who led the march for voting rights for all Americans in Selma Bridge and was knocked out for his trouble – did not protest in vain. Martin Luther King did not die in vain. Nor did Bobby Kennedy – briefly the voice of a generation and shot dead in Los Angeles just a few weeks later.
The quiet suffering of the man in Altgeld Gardens – where Barack Obama worked in the 80s as a community organiser – who had never registered to vote because he was ashamed that he couldn’t read or write and registered and voted for the first time this year, was not in vain. What made him get someone to help him fill in the forms? Barack Obama and everything he represents.
So many millions of others of all hues and backgrounds have reached for justice. Their struggle, and now success, shows that politics is not just a tool for the privileged; it can be wielded for the common good. Barack and Michelle Obama’s ancestors were subjects and slaves.
They were segregated and humiliated. In some states, at the time of his birth, the short union of his mother and father would not even have been legal. And now the two of them occupy the White House.
Later on in the day, I happened upon an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama from the mid-90s when they were in their thirties. (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/19/090119fa_fact_cook)
There was a real thoughtfulness to the way that Barack and Michelle Obama talked about their marriage. Though this interview was only twelve years ago, Barack Obama was not so much as a state senator at that point let alone US Senator or budding candidate for the presidency.
Of his wife, he said: “I’m extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways.”
Michelle comes across as much more cautious in the interview. She is sceptical about his potential political career. She is learning from him. His flamboyance brings out her personality. Her caution keeps the unit together. Their partnership is a powerful bond; an unbreakable union.
These values of partnership run strong in Barack Obama. His own family history must have seemed haywire at times. He never really knew his father prior to his premature death. He was partially brought up in Indonesia when his mother married Lolo Soetoro. But it was far from all bad despite the 4.30am lectures on Martin Luther King – he did get a pet ape and to learn how to box. He was brought up for much of his life by his grandparents in Hawaii.
So he values family above all else. Those values will shine like a beacon with this presidential couple. What an example – a stronger partnership is harder to imagine.
So that family of the taxi driver that I met on inauguration day were able to share a loving moment as America moved forward in its quest for true equality and justice.
They mirror what we see in the White House.
The daughters will dare to dream. They will dare to aspire. The parents know that their daughters’ journey needs their strength, love and support.
Before he signed a single executive order, or introduced a single bill to Congress, or completed his appointments, Barack Obama, along with his wife, already made a difference. The inauguration was his day and their day.
It was also America’s day. It was our day too. It was, most importantly, that five-year-old’s day. She now knows that she can aspire. And she can succeed.
That is the meaning of the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
* Anthony Painter is author of Barack Obama: The Movement for Change
