To Carry History's Burden

Obama definitely soft-pedaled his message in his inaugural address. There was little of the soaring rhetoric of his campaign speeches. More on the nation and economy he is inheriting. As The Onion wrote, "Black Man to Inherit Nation's Worst Job."
There was a euphoria that was different from Clinton's 1993 takeover. The man is the message and the message is the man.
Hard to watch as Obama walked outside the bullet-proof (and other proof) car on Penn. Ave.
You could see the tension in the secret service men, ready for a shot, a bang, a boom.
"You may become a prophet, but prophets get killed," a black leader told Bobby Kennedy in 1968.
My worst nightmare (except for those involving me) is Obama killed in office. Newark has never recovered from its riots in 1968. Detroit is still trying, despite a body count in the '67 riots that was finally surpassed by LA in 1992.
But the most interesting clip I saw was of a black 14-year-old. He said that before Obama he thought that rap and pro basketball were the only way out of the 'hood. Now, he said, he thought that he could become president.
Caution for liberals. Philadelphia mayor Nutter (who supported Clinton) essentially said that very few people in the ghetto are going to go to Columbia and Harvard Law. He touted more attention for the public schools.
Let's begin again, to something that has never been accomplished in the history of man: a republic and a democracy that excludes no one.
Greece and Rome had their slaves. The British had the largest empire on earth. The American south had, again, slaves.
So the question remains: can we have a great civilization which is great at no ones expense?