Barack Obama – Four More Years
Many in the Indian-American community will agree that they haven’t heard three more beautiful words than ‘Four More Years’ in this political season. Large numbers of Indian-Americans supported Obama and have stood by this president through thick and thin. So for many, his inauguration was particularly sweet; there was a feeling of relief, of contentment, a fuzzy feeling of security that the next four years, no matter how rough, were in good, workman-like hands. Bruised and battered, America was headed toward positive happenings.
“We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time,” said Obama in his inaugural speech. ” So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach higher.”
Obama touched upon all that needs fixing and the Utopia that can be created: Equal pay, gender rights, fair immigration and gun control. ” For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity — until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”
What came through was the solemnity of the oath, the crowds as witness and participants; the pomp and circumstance of parades and inaugural balls. All part of the new beginning, a new year.
“My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it — so long as we seize it together,” said Obama and these words surely resonated with the millions watching live or at home.
Perhaps what captures the mood of the nation best is the concluding verse from One Today, the inaugural poem by Richard Blanco, first Hispanic, LGBT, and youngest-ever inaugural poet @rblancopoet: http://bit.ly/ULFOiu
“We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.”
Here for visitors from different parts of the world, a peek into America’s excitement and joy – check out President Obama’s inaugural speech, fun video about the next four years, and also a video about the desi inaugural ball in DC, showing that Indian-Americans are very much a part of the American fabric and political landscape…
At the Indiaspora Ball
