A Self-Evident Truth

Last night I had a really weird dream. I was in the Overlook Hotel, minding my own business. Then, next thing I know, I'm being chased by Chucky, who was brandishing a knife and cackling madly. I ran like hell down the hallways of the Overlook but could not shake him. And then, finally, when all hope seemed lost, I saw a door and I ran in and there was Halle Berry, and she kicked Chucky back to his box, and then she was pouring champagne and smiling. And that is where the camera panned to the window.

Ok. Perhaps my metaphor is a bit contrived, but it works, dammit.

There were some fun moments. Yes, Chief Justice Roberts made as awkward as a breakfast after a bad decision. Somehow, incredibly, in the true WTF moment of the day, Don King was there. And Bush the Lesser, when acknowledged by Obama in his speech, received the same tepid, quasi-sarcastic applause that had been reserved for Junior High School Vice-Principals and Abstinence Promoters given equal time at High School Health Days.

But Aretha Franklin was phenomenal. I mean, look:



And, of course, the speech itself, which I thought was phenomenal. Perhaps we've been listening too long to country-isms and inappropriate abbreviations. Bush used to call his half-Mexican nephews "Brownies." The standard was low.

But then you get a guy who can turn a phrase like no one else. Here it is, and it deserves a second, third, and umpteenth hearing.



The transcript of the speech reads almost like a poem. The sharp digs to the Bush Doctrine ("As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.") were terrific. I believe this encapsulates it:

"And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."

And then we have this part, which is just majestic:

"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

"It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

"Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

"For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

"For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

"Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction."

See what I mean? The litany just works. And it is timeless, like a good speech should be, and can be recited no matter the time, place or context and still make sense.

And the end is just. Wow. Let's leave it at that.

"So let us mark this day in 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 nine 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.'

"America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

I am fully aware that this turned more or less into a reprint of Obama's speech. But his words are so powerful that anything that I add is superfluous. All I know is, after today, we have a new, self-evident truth.

There is good reason to hope.