OBAMA-RAMA

It was dead quiet on the phones at work today while the world was watching Obama’s inauguration. No one can get enough of the man, it seems. For example, Canada’s national news service, CBC, has on its website a lead article on his swearing in and his call for “remaking America”, the itinerary of the inauguration ceremonies, the full text of Obama’s address, a photo gallery of the day’s events and the days leading up to it, a D.C. diary of a CBC news correspondent who tells us her thoughts and observations at every step of her trip to Washington and every part of the ceremonies, an article by seasoned correspondent Henry Champ called “An Inauguration in a Cell Phone Age”, a synopsis of the Bush years and how Obama’s term in office might be different, another article by Heather Mallick titled “Don’t fool me please, Barack Obama” and an arts ariticle called “In his image” (a survey about Obama inspired art images). Besides these, there is another news article about his plans to visit Canada in the near future, his first anticipated foreign visit, and three video reports on the inaugural parade, happenings in his Kenyan village and people’s reactions around the world. This is even bigger than Princess Diana’s death, and a much happier event.

I am hopeful too, though I don’t have much interest in image or publicity events. I probably won’t be seeking out recordings of today’s happenings because I expect to see images of the day for months and years to come. And the images are inspiring. Only the most jaded veterans would scoff at the potential good Obama could do in his term. The worst I have heard is that he’ll be assassinated before he can enact any real change, but in this case that would be license for revolution. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, at least not a violent one.