George Packer, in the New Yorker yesterday, praised President Obama's inaugural address, but also declared that it would not measure up to the grand speeches of history, saying: "There were echoes of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, but President Obama uttered no words today that will be quoted in a hundred years."
I can't see it. In both listening to and reading the speech, I was caught by several rhetorical hooks that penetrated deeply. Besides, words that come down through the ages have as much to do with the circumstances in which they are said as the phrases themselves. Anyone can say "I have a dream," or "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," but it is the situation that makes the remark memorable.
I don't think enough media commentators realize yet how truly pivotal the times are. Obama's election is about a lot more than just healing the race wounds or even bringing back core democratic values. To maintain a habitable planet we'll have to make changes that are almost unimaginable. If Barack Obama helps us get through the hard times ahead, then his words will be remembered.
Let's start with his most important phrase: "...the time has come to put aside childish things." Sure it's a quote from the bible, not his own words, but the most important literature in the English language is full of bible quotes and allusions. This was Obama's most important phrase because it speaks most directly to our biggest weakness and the place where we need to start.
The next most important phrase echos in some ways JFK's "ask not what your country..." but with a twist that directly confronts the childish idealogues among us: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works." Truly, this is a more important question than JFK's rhetorically pleasing but vague appeal to patriotism.
The audience, from the vantage of my TV, seemed rapt and still, listening to every word, unassaulted by the crude applause lines that most politicians use. But there was one line that elicited immediate, overwhelming applause and this is a line that will be remembered: "As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
Here are some more lines that will be taught to school children 100 years from now - if there are schools and if there are children:
"...a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous."
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers."
"...we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."
"...there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship."
"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."
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