As challenges abound, we are faced with one of the handful of truly extraordinary events of our era. Today is the day of the inauguration of BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA II as the 44th President of the United States. Though I've been cynical of the worldwide political spectrum throughout my life, and have no false patriotism (nor false optimism), the election of this man to the Presidency makes me proud to be an American.Though I will likely never achieve even one iota of Obama's greatness, or even his successes, I will, on this historic day, indulge myself in boasting a few parallels between him and me. We were both born in the first half of the 1960s (I am three years younger than him, and born in the same year as the soon-to-be First Lady, Michelle Obama), this makes our President-elect and me (and Mrs. Obama) members of the last breath of the Baby Boomer generation (officially ending in Mrs. Obama's birth year and mine, 1964). We are both Leos--President-elect Obama was born on August 4; I was born on August 10. We are both left-handed. We both have an affiliation with Columbia University--Mr. Obama is a graduate of Columbia College (class of 1983), and I was the Associate Director of the Columbia College (and undergraduate Engineering school, a.k.a. SEAS: later, Fu SEAS) Financial Aid office and worked for the university for almost seven years. We both attended undergraduate school in Harlem--Mr. Obama, again, at Columbia (which is in Morningside Heights which is still, technically, part of Harlem); and me at the City College of the City University of New York (a public college in a public university which boasts, I believe, 10 Nobel Laureates as graduates -- the most Nobel Laureate graduates of any American public institution -- and former, history-making Secretary of State, Colin Powell, KCB, among other notables). Mr. Obama and I (and, again, Mrs. Obama) came from families that experienced severe financial struggles and we were profoundly challenged to realize our educations and life goals. This, however, is where our similarities end, where I could never compare to our new President, and where I can't help but be overwhelmed by his achievements.
I speak (and write) all of my praise of the man who will be President in just a few short hours with a caveat. The world stage is peopled by players but the "play" is "sponsored" by forces that supercede politics and political figures. We are all puppets in that play. On one level, Mr. Obama is no different--he will be only what "true power" will allow. He is also a person who has done a lot -- I'm sure some of it good, some of it not so good -- to get to his position of presumed, and partially very true, power. Therefore, my eyes always remain open... and I know that Big Business, Big Energy, Big Pharma, Big Corn Production (there is corn in just about everything that Americans, at least, eat, wear, etc.), etc., etc., are even more influential than an individual of great power. Mr. Obama also faces an economy in absolute turmoil--moreover, unfortunately, to find a way to bring confidence to the American public while, because he must (and probably believes in doing so), continuing some of the American "myths."
But Mr. Obama's presence on the world stage, his intelligence and his early-demonstrated skills for listening, reasoning and articulating, his face on that stage, make for the first TRUE change in American politics... EVER. Just seeing African-Americans, all People of Color, all people of ethnically diverse backgrounds, now believing that the United States is beginning, just beginning, to include them, their rich history and culture, their overwhelming achievements, their lives, their presence, their scholarship, their economic presence (and their part in the American and world economic system) and so, so much more, in the country's face, presence and status. This alone, and the fact that all of it seems to come in the body of an ordinary-extraordinary man, makes it all the more important. It is certainly special to me.
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