I was thinking this morning as I was driving into work that I wasn't nearly as excited as everyone else about Obama's inauguration. I'm certain that I am not the only one out there, but boy, watching that covereage on Tuesday you would never have known it. I'm just not on the Obama train. I like to think of myself as supportive (I did vote for him) and loyal (I voted for him because I'm a democrat and I felt like I needed to support my party).
But I was very, very annoyed at the cost of the innauguration. Given that most of the people who read this blog are avid supporters and probably would argue this point with me until I'm dead, I'll just leave it by saying that "sacrifice" comes in lots of ways. $171 million dollars is a lot to pay for one day.
Kelly, rightly I suspect, pointed out that he probably had nothing to do it with it. Even if he had said "keep it cheap", it's not really his to decide. It's for the people who supported him. I get that. I disagree with it, but I get it. On a second note, Kelly wondered out loud how much revenue the city generated (and Virginia and Maryland for that matter) by the huge festivities.
She's probably right.
I just didn't like the optics of it.
So while I watched the coverage much of the day and watched the oath and watched the speech and caught much of the parade, I wasn't all that interested. I was moved in moment (who couldn't be?), but for the most part the emotion of the day was disinterest and a bit of disgust.
The random thought I had on the way to work this morning was "isn't that fantastic?" Seriously. I live in a country where I can be disinterested and even a bit disgusted by the government because I know that the transfer of power will happen peacefully and completely. I trust that I will wake up tomorrow and my government will still function. I can completely disagree with the politics (I don't...but I could if I wanted to) and I would still know that my country was not going to collapse around me.
THAT is democracy and it's the single factor that makes me feel loyal to our country.
That's my random thought of the day.
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1 comment:
I get it. I'm not excited by it either. I mean, I'm happy that the US elected a democratic and that this is the first black president. I think those things are wonderful. But I could care less about the ceremony and I sometimes feel like the only one who feels this way.
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