I bet the new US President is pretty exhausted after what must’ve been a looooong day.
Everyone I know was captivated by yesterday’s events. Some folks’ employers set up TVs so their staff could follow events live (like my husband ‘s). At my office, land of technology galore, we’ve not a TV with a decent signal. So most of us followed things at our workstations on webcasts. Aside from two unfortunate aspects (Roberts stuffing up the oath and Warren’s rambling evangelical babblefest that was the opposite of non-denominational), it was a grand event on a grand scale.
I’ve not seen (ok, experienced) this sort of excitement, expectation and hope for a newly elected head of government. Obama’s speech only reinforced that for me, with his unambiguous acknowledgement of most of the challenges he faces. And his unequivocal call to action: for Americans, but also everyone else whose lives are affected by what the US does. And does not.
And yet, nearly everyone I talked to up here said the same thing about the new President:
- I’m excited and relieved; and
- I hope they don’t shoot him.
Isn’t that horrible? Not that people were forthright with their concern, but that they shared it?
A few nights ago we went to see Milk, which is also the story of a visionary public official who brazenly challenged the status quo…and paid the ultimate price for it. There was nothing new in the film’s narrative for me: I know the story and it’s time mainstream America did too. But the parallels to today: Prop 8–Obama’s ascendancy–are striking to me. As is the scope for the Obama story to have a similar, tragic end.
Please America: don’t kill him.
