I'd Rather Be In Washington

Inauguration Day was another one of those times when I wish I could be at the site of a history-making story instead of watching it through the fishbowl of monitors, wires and websites in the newsroom. Two million people on the Capitol Mall will tell their families and friends they were there. I watched it on television, like most Americans. I'm not ashamed to admit it was an emotional moment.

President Obama's inauguration address mentions "we" a lot, as in We The People, not just We The Obama Administration.

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate."

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."

Limited government, hard work, personal responsibility, faith, courage. Sounds like conservative values to me. Flaming leftist, he's not. And thanks, Mr. President, for giving a nod to the sentiments of Ben Franklin...

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

...and George Washington...

The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: “Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

So it's all about us. President Obama can drive this nation, but we must be the engine. People can complain about this ceremony looking like a coronation -- especially with a presidential banner hanging from the trumpets blown during the ceremony -- but it's our coronation too. We are all being inaugurated, asked to take our oaths as Americans once more and live up to the values that define who we're supposed to be, values that originally came to us from Heaven.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

Just before our new president spoke those words, I watched as a CBS reporter interviewed a woman in the massive throng of crowds. She also quoted from Scripture, Psalm 118 to be exact:

“This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

All around her, that's what people did. As Tucsonan Ed Garcia observed while standing in the crowd:

Grown men crying like children, women waving Obama flags in one hand and American flags in the other and children dressed head to toe in Obama clothes. Everyone, young, old, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, African-American, Native-American, but all AMERICANS, standing shoulder to shoulder, braving freezing temperatures, focused on the steps of the United States Capitol. We are witnessing history. We are here. We ARE a part of history.

I wish I could've been standing there too, taking that oath with my heart, if not with my hand.