Inaugural Speech Coverage Live, On Al-Jazeera!

January 21, 2009

Ooh, so close! I totally thought Obama had quoted Aaliyah in his inaugural speech.

“...dust ourselves off, and begin again...”

but he said “begin”, not “try”. I should have known that he would choose a revolutionary over an R&B star as his quote source. Oh well. Regardless, it reminds me of when Jodie Foster quoted Eminem at our graduation ceremony. 

Though this was Obama's day, my favorite moment of the entire affair came when Reverend Joseph Lowery took up the podium to deliver his benediction and ended with a color inventory:

“...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.”

Heehee! What a poet. (Don't you know it?) 

Waiiiiiit a minute...what is a red man? Is that a shout out to drunkies? Santa Claus? 

Didn't Dick Cheney look so old and weak in that wheelchair? There ain't no escaping time and old age, even for the Wizard of Oz. Except through death. But there's definitely no escaping death. I learned that from watching Final Destination 2. And 3.