By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH– February 4, 2009
The most important speech at the inauguration of President
Barack Obama were of course those spoken by him in his Inaugural Address. On January 19, 2009 I wrote a
Commentary for BuzzFlash entitled “My Wish List for the Inaugural Address.”
It was published
on inauguration day. At the
beginning of that Commentary I said: “A couple of weeks ago, the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a questionnaire to its contributors
(of which, I must admit, I am one). It asked for one's top pick for the
must-deal-with problems. The list consisted of the usual suspects, beginning
with what can be called ‘The Five “E's” ‘(with liberties taken): Economic
stimulus, Education, Environment, Ealth Care, and Eraq (well some people do
pronounce it that way), as well as Tax Reform (?!) and, somewhere on the list,
"national defense/security." My answer, had I answered, would have
been "None of the above." One will likely hear some version or
another of the list above in Pres. Obama's address. But I am really hoping, oh
boy am I hoping, that some significant percentage of the time in what will be a
relatively short speech (20 minutes or so, so we have been told) will be
devoted to the Big "C:" the Constitution, and the restoration of
Constitutional Democracy (C.D.) in the United States.
Well, my wish was rewarded. Below I will highlight those portions of Pres. Obama’s
Inaugural that constituted my reward. But before doing that I would like to
turn to the words of another speaker about whom I had also written commentary
before the event, commentary that appeared both on the pages of BuzzFlash and
right here on TPJmagazine. Like
many other commentators on the Left, I took Warren apart. I also criticized the choice that the
Team Obama had made. For it fell
into the trap set by the Right that in contemporary American politics
homophobia is politically OK, just as long as the putative subject is “gay
marriage.”
Then along came Rev. Warren, to give the invocation. Much to my surprise, in it I found much
to admire and nothing to complain about. Indeed many observers on the left did complain about the frequent
references to “God” and to “Jesus.” But the man is a Christian minister and he believes in both God and
Christ, as divine, sentient, powerful beings, existing in the supernatural. I am a Secular Humanist and I don’t
believe in what he believes in. But I respect him and his beliefs and I also believe in the First
Amendment. Thus he is free to
express them, in our country. What
I do not agree with is when Christians, or the representatives of any other
religion, attempt to force their particular beliefs upon me, in an attempt to
control and limit my beliefs, through the force of law. But that is another matter.
So surprising to me were the words in his invocation which
completely contradicted the homophobic positions he has taken on many other
occasions, from the pulpit and elsewhere. I am just wondering if, because of the furor that followed his selection
the Rev. did some rethinking, perhaps even communicating in the manner in which
he does with his concept of “God.” In so doing did he learn, perhaps, that his God truly loves all of his
or her creations, including homosexuals? To paraphrase Lincoln, in fact God must love the gays and lesbians
because he made so many of them. And so, let’s listen to the Rev. Warren:
“Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful
transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with
the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United
States. We are so grateful to live
in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African
immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. . . . Give to our
new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage
to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. . . .
[r]emember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but
to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
“When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when
we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our
prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human
beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
“And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a
new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in
our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ. Help us to share, to serve and to seek
the common good of all. May all
people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy
[sic], and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.”
I say that these are memorable words, with which all
supporters of President Obama (and even some, but unfortunately not all, of his
opponents) can agree. I say with
all due respect to the Rev. Warren: “Is it possible that, having gone through
the fire of the criticism aimed at you for your evil words said to our gay and
lesbian compatriots, you have again been born again and moved to a higher level
of understanding or your fellow man?” We shall see what the future holds for the Rev. Warren.
Turning now to the words President Obama. In my “wish list” BuzzFlash Commentary
I said: “I am really hoping, oh boy am I hoping, that some significant
percentage of the time in what will be a relatively short speech (20 minutes or
so, so we have been told) will be devoted to the Big "C:" the
Constitution, and the restoration of Constitutional Democracy in the United
States.” Well, the word “Constitution”
did not appear in the Address. But
it was very much of a presence.
Paraphrasing the great work by Aaron Copeland, “A Lincoln
Portrait,” that opened the Inaugural Concert on January 18, President Obama
said, this is what he said: “The question we ask today is not whether our
government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it
helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement
that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where
the answer is no, programs will end.”
In this light, listen to the most ignored section of the
Constitution, the Preamble: “We the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” No prescription for big or small
government here, but for one that works, for the benefit of all the people, in
the context of the democratic government, operating under the Rule of Law, that
the body of the Constitution prescribes..
President Obama said, this is what he said: “As for our
common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a
charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by
the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not
give them up for expedience's sake. . . . [O]ur security emanates from the
justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of
humility and restraint. We are the keepers of this legacy.” There we can find in these words echoes
of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth
Amendments.
Echoing the First Amendment once more, President Obama said:
“We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and
non-believers.” To my knowledge,
no President has ever referred, as he did with these last words, to my sector
of the population. It now, it has
been estimated, stands at 30,000,000 strong. Echoing the Fifteenth Amendment, the original Civil Rights
Act that took 100 years to be put into force, President Obama said: “This is
the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children
of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent
Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been
served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred
oath.”
And finally President Obama said, referring to the darkest
days of the American Revolution, spent by General Washington and his Winter
Soldiers at Valley Forge, “So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we
are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the
coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the
shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The
snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was
most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the
people: ‘Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter,
when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country,
alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).’ "
The President probably does not know, for few Americans do,
that the great Prussian officer Baron Friedrich von Stueben, who trained the Continental
Army into fighting shape throughout that bitter winter, at the age of 47 a to
be life-long bachelor, brought with him only his French secretary, a handsome
young man of 19.
And that, my friends, brings us back to the words of those
in this country who would deny people their civil rights, simply because they
have a different sexual identity than do the majority. And so, by implication, President Obama
finished his address by alluding to perhaps the most important clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment: “[No] State
shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws.” 