It is a new beginning of sorts, a "new era of responsibility" is what he called it. As we turn another page in the annals of human history, this time a new volume begins. It signals the end of an age and the beginning of another. Indifference to or paralysis in the face of unjust and dehumanizing systems that subtly or overtly oppress and devalue others on the basis of human distinctions can no longer exist as the default position of Americans in the world.
On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 we witnessed an historic and revolutionary act of redemption and transition in the global social-political arena. Barach Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American President, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. He is the son of a Kenyan immigrant and a midwesterner. He was raised with his maternal grandparents and mother, in the absence of his father. he is extremely well-educated and a product of postmodernity. He is struggling to give up his blackberry. He is married to Michelle, also a successful lawyer. They lived in Chicago, where he sought to revitalize struggling communities. He was a state Senator and spent four years in the U.S. Senate. His intellect and capacity to understand complex issues of history, politics, economics, and human relationships makes him a highly capable leader. He is charismatic and bold. He inspires confidence and hope for a generation of people increasingly frustrated with modern institutions, special interest politics, and a consumption-driven economy that privileges the few. He will be paid $400,000 a year to lead our nation out of war, out of economic recession, out of a cultural poverty that lacks beauty and innovation, industry and compassion. We pay entertainers and athletes 100 times what he makes in a year. He was sworn in on Lincoln's inaugural bible.
148 years ago Lincoln, the proclaimer of emancipation, was sworn into the Presidency by the chief justice (Robert Taney) who wrote the decision in the Dred Scott case that stated: "States do not have the right to claim an individual’s property that was fairly theirs in another state. Property cannot cease to exist as a result of changing jurisdiction. The majority decision held that Africans residing in America, whether free or slave, could not become United States citizens and the plaintiff therefore lacked the capacity to file a lawsuit. Furthermore, the parts of the Missouri Compromise creating free territories were unconstitutional because Congress had no authority to abolish slavery in federal territories." ----ruling of the court in Dred Scott vs. Sanford, March 6, 1857. In 1865 and '68 the thirteenth and fourteenth amendmants would guarantee full rights and citizenship for people of African descent. 140 years after the fourteenth amendment is passed, Barack Obama swears to preserve and protect the very constitution that guarantees the equality and freedom essential to our national identity and to rehumanizing the other in our midst. We have lived in deep deception, blindness, and fear. The people who walked in darkness...After Tuesday, isolationism and terrorism--the two actions produced by absolute fear---cannot remain the default mechanism by which humans operate in the world. "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself," said F.D. Roosevelt. And what he meant holds true today more than ever before. Fear is a root cause of suffering. "Perfect love drives out fear," wrote John. To love the other is to engage them, to see them, to welcome them, to feed them, to offer gifts, to embrace as one embraces a friend. We are being called to corporately embrace people. Jesus called this neighbor love. To let love drive one's actions toward the other, rather than fear. Someone said that Obama's presidency means that people will be less afraid of a young black man walking down the street. After all, he could likely be a doctor or a lawyer or a president; as well as a criminal or a gang member. Our default assumptions about people are being reconstructed and this is God's doing in and through history. It shows us that God's work of redemption through history is characterized not by immediate, swift seismic displacement. But by the gently moving wind that moves through the ages. Redemption itself is timeless and eternal, transcending our own agendas and dreams. Dr. King had a dream. He expected it to be realized one day. And that dream is being realized in our lifetime; but there is more work to be done. The twin sister of racial inequality is economic injustice. So with race, now with poverty.
"Time moves on and redemption happens in history. Dry bones are re-assembled, held together by sinews and flesh. Dry bones in the psyche of young African-American males who lack a sense that there is a legitimate place for them at the table. A place where they can express their own voice with pride and dignity. Because Obama embodies this, a healing shift has happened in the African-American story–in the American story.
Time moves on and redemption happens in history. The redemption of past wrongs is a good thing. An African-American president is part of the healing of history. It is part of the healing no matter what your individual political perspective. It is part of the healing because it is flesh being put to dry bones. It is the inclusion of the other. It is the peaceful revolution of hope in which those who have been trampled on by history now come to the table of privilege."---Excerpted from Just an Apprentice; a blog by my friend and co-conspirator Brian Miller.
