Academic

Inaugural Musings

By Laura Appleman

So much has already been said about the pageantry and speechifying of the Inauguration that I am happy to leave that task to others.  But there were a couple of things that particularly struck me as I listened to the proceedings (I was driving to class) that I thought bore comment:

1.  The confusion over what to do with Obama's middle name. 
There seemed to be three conflicting approaches here.  The first, used by the general announcer when Obama first came out, was to skip the middle name entirely:  "President-Elect Barack Obama."  Next was Pelosi's take, which was "Barack H. Obama."  When taking the oath, both Roberts and Obama himself used his full name, "Barack Hussein Obama."  And then the media generally just dropped the middle name entirely. 

I note this only because usually everyone is agreed on what to call the President before the actual swearing-in, and it struck me as odd that there was so much tiptoeing around the middle name.   Do you think this would have happened if his middle name was, say, Milhous?

2.  The Inaugural Poem.
I think the fact that I simply listened to this, as opposed to watching it on television, gave it a different flavor.  I can't say I was overwhelmed by the poem, or its reading (poets are famously poor readers of their own poetry), but I did really like the second-to-last line:

"In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun."

It's that sense of beginning that accompanies any new administration, and Alexander captured this nicely.

3.  Aretha Franklin.
Again, just listening to her rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and not being able to see the visuals, made this really resonate.  I don't tend to get very emotional at ceremonies, but listening to Franklin sing about the "sweet land of liberty" was deeply moving.  Considering that Franklin was born in 1942, when the strange fruit of the South (that is, lynching) was still going on, to have her sing about "Freedom ring[ing]" at the inauguration of the first African-American president was an amazing thing.  And I liked the background singers too!

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).