What Would Langston Say? (1/20/09)

What Would Langston Say? (Kansas, 01/20/09)
When was the last time you actually watched an inauguration? I mean actually watched? I have no answer to that question. But today I think will be one of those "where were you when" moments in history. Each of us will have a personal set of memories of this day that will be emblazoned on our consciousness for years to come. It was an extraordinary day. For the past eight years I have been rather proud of the fact that I have managed not to put the words President and Bush together. Just couldn't do it. In my mind, he didn't win and he didn't deserve my utterance of a false title. So I'm really out of the practice of using that title for the man seated in the White House.
I watched the inauguration alone, with my box of tissue in my room in the Holiday Inn in Lawrence, Kansas. Yeah, I'm working in Kansas. And in an effort to make myself feel a little better about not going to the inauguration, I remind myself that the poet Langston Hughes spent his childhood here. Langston wrote:
I, Too, Sing America.
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
So, I can say it now. President Obama. Not only is he at the table, Langston, he's in that special seat. The one designated for the turkey-carver. And I was so unhappy about the selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation. While I understood the politics of the decision, I didn't like it. But after hearing the Rev. Joseph Lowery, deliver the benediction.... I'm thinking Rick who? Warren in fact all of us, got a lesson in dignity, humility and humor.
So thank you President Obama for putting the public back in republic. Mission accomplished. Now the hard work begins.