Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States at high noon, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, and he must now pick up the pen and begin to proofread and write the wrongs lingering from the Bush years. The economy is in its most crippled state since the Great Depression, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on without an end in sight; Obama promised to coalesce and heal both over time.
Scenes from the inauguration: Malia and Barack Obama take center stage, Joe Biden recites the vice presidential oath, an attendee at the Palace Theatre event is overcome with emotion and another attendee displays his approval. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS
And if the voice of the people is indeed the virtue of democracy, the estimated 3 million people that crowded around the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration in person, plus the millions more that packed coffeehouses, bars, break rooms, friends’ living rooms and other venues in Anytown, USA, symbolically gestured a giant middle finger to the outgoing president, while letting the new guy know they believe in his “change” mantra and are willing to stand with each other, through peril, to get to the promised land. Even Syracuse walked the allegory of hope.
In Eastwood’s Palace Theatre, 2384 James St., the doors were open and the seats were free to anyone who wanted to watch the inauguration projected on the big screen. By the time Obama placed his left hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration in 1861, the theater was standing room only: an estimated 500 people on a Tuesday afternoon.
Every time Bush or the wheelchair-bound “real” Jeffrey Lebowski look-alike Dick Cheney’s mug shot appeared, the throng let out a bellow of boos. Did these folks show up to cheer Bush out of office or welcome Obama in? Maybe a little bit of both. What would have happened had “Maverick” John McCain won and he was being sworn in instead of Obama on this day?
“You would have to ask me a question like that, wouldn’t you?” said 1st District Common Councilor Michael Heagerty, owner of the Palace Theatre. “I am more of a bipartisan and even though I’m a Democrat, I don’t believe in partisan politics. He {McCain} would have been the president of the United States, and as such, we probably would have held a similar function.”
Given the raucous chants of “O-Ba-Ma!” that rang out at the Palace during the 44th president’s inaugural speech, and the boos that followed a shot of Bush or Cheney, it was still hard to tell which side of the turnstile—the entrance or the exit—the public was more defiant over. “It’s been a long eight years,” responded Heagerty when asked which direction he was going, “and it’s just amazing what people had to put up with.”
In an almost ironic twist to Obama’s historic inauguration, the federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. was celebrated the day before. King’s vision more than 40 years ago was to see a day when people from all walks of life could march as one, and where a man was not immediately judged based on the color of his skin, which is what occurred in the flesh on inauguration day. Many people who were there on the racial frontlines back in the 1960s never thought they’d be around to see the day that a black man was voted to the highest rank in the United States.
“Being a part of a generation that came through segregation,” said Amatullah Yamini, former Onondaga County legislator, “this is a new day for us, and that we lived long enough to see it, means so much.”
Yamini knows work remains to bring King’s vision into focus, but she believes we’re finally starting down the right side of the mountain. “Dr. King would have been pleased with today,” she continued. “And this is a part of the mountaintop he spoke of where you can see where everything is starting to come together. And all the young people that have worked to turn this country around this election have absolutely amazed me, and I’m so proud of them all.”
—Tom Kahley
