The Inauguration was officially today, January 20, but the public swearing-in ceremony and celebrations will be held Monday, January 21.

Here is a minute-by-minute guide to the Inauguration. (Times are Eastern.)

I voted "all" ~ I very rarely turn TV on during the day, but I will/do have it on now ~ I will not sit glued to the TV, watching every moment ~ but the inauguration will be my "background music" today ~

Sooz

I voted for "Watch the recap on the news"; however, I changed my mind, and I will actually be watching "All of it" via recording it for playback later.

I watched a bit of the weekend coverage on CNN, and more this morning, and it's actually quite interesting. They've been telling us about previous inaugurations, Michelle Obama's fashion statements, showing us a scale model of the route the President will take, the legal significance of the Oath flub of 2008, and other wonderful tidbits, and I decided that watching the replay later on my DVR would be far more interesting and educational than anything I might watch later. So since I'll be at work when the event takes place, I'll be recording for playback later and watching "ALL" of it.

I am not planning on watching any of the Inauguration. I will probably see some of it because I generally do.

I have always liked Michelle's fashion sense but am not generally a fan of bangs (which is practically a viral issue on the net).

Obama was sworn in yesterday.
This "inauguration" is nothing but part of the "show for the people".
Reckon it's as easy to "create history" as it is to rewrite it.

Today's event is the public celebration. Yesterday's swearing in was a private event.

It's much the same as when people have a private marriage, followed by a public marriage celebration. Or a private funeral, followed by a public one.

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I learned a couple of interesting things this morning from CNN's coverage:

Designated Survivor
One person (presumbaly from Congress) won't be attending the event. They are the "Designated Survivor" in case the unimaginable happens. [CNN did not know who the designated survivor was at that point. They didn't elaborate, but perhaps it is kept a secret until the event is over.]

Re-election
By winning re-election, President Obama joined a minority group of Presidents. Only 17 Presidents have won a second term.

Technically, the prez and veep must be sworn in on January 20th ~ traditionally, whenever the 20th falls on a Sunday, the public ceremony is conducted the next day ~

Sooz

It's all stuff and nonsense, IMO.
Like a Royal Progress.

I am at work and have it streaming in the background.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, oskar ~ my own opinion is the opposite of yours: the ceremony and the public celebration are meaningful to me ~

Sooz

I've got it on in the background as I write report cards.

It was worth watching. Obama's speech was...breathtaking.


How I feel when this man speaks is hard to describe. He instills a feeling of hope, and purpose.

There are very few people in this world I really truly am willing to follow. But I think I would follow Obama off a cliff if he asked me to, in a duty for humanity. He is someone who's intelligence and integrity would make me believe in and do what he says, even when I personally don't understand it all. I think I truly feel awe, long after I thought I was capable of it.

And for me, the ultimate authority rebel, that's saying something.

Yes, to me this was a terrific, inspiring, uplifting message. And he delivered it with real fire. I didn't expect him to to refer so pointedly to his agenda, but am glad he did. Rather than just venerate the founders and their ideals, he challenged the country to make the ideals of the Declaration of Independence - unalienable rights, equality under the law - real for people living here today. I'm going to read it again.

And I was awed by the poem. That was so beautiful and touching.

I'm in the same camp with greeny and gramps ~ I thought both Obama'a message and his delivery were stellar today ~

Sooz

Here's a link to a clip of Obama delivering his remarks and a written transcript of the remarks ~ Sooz

President Obama’s inaugural speech: ‘We cannot mistake absolutism for principle’
By Megan Carpentier
Monday, January 21, 2013 13:06 EST

President Obama spoke at his second inauguration this afternoon, issuing a call to all Americans to be tolerant of one another — and of one another’s beliefs — while seeking to provide to all the equality promised in our founding documents.

“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it,” he said, adding, “We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

The crowd on the National Mall responded most vociferously to his call to action for equality for women, LGBT people, immigrants and those denied their voting rights:


Watch the speech in its entirety below, courtesy of MSNBC: [Sooz comment: clip of speech is accessible via the end link]

President’ Obama’s speech as prepared for delivery:

Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.

For more than two hundred years, we have.

Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.

Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.

Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.

Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.

Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.

But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. 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, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. 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.

That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.

For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.

They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.

You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/21/president-obamas-inaugural-speech-we-cannot-mistake-absolutism-for-principle/

I am so happy with his speech, so proud to have him as my President.

That's because he knows he no longer has to hold his tongue - he's done in four.

I've been listening to the stream on NPR all day.

Here's the poem that gramps found "so beautiful and touching" ~ I agree whole-heartedly ~ Sooz

Full Text of Richard Blanco’s Inaugural Poem ‘One Today’
By: Sarah JonesJan. 21st, 2013

The Presidential Inaugural Committee released the full text of Richard Blanco’s poem this afternoon. Blanco wrote “One Today” for the occasion and he is the first Latino, openly gay and youngest poet to receive the honor.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco, read his poem “One Today” at the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Watch here: [Sooz comment: clip is accessible via the end link]

Full text of the poem as written is available below:

One Today

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

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

http://www.politicususa.com/inaugural-poet-richard-blancos-poem-one-today.html

Pencil-yellow school buses - incredible how much four words can convey.

Oskar wrote:


Sooz replied:


And to me as well. Thanks, Sooz!

i like poems that use the word poem.

It's a public celebration of the peaceful passsing of power from one administration to another, the likes of which has never been seen anywhere in the world to last over 200 years. It marks two hundred years of peaceful change and is a huge celebration of democracy. While I am not always interested in the pomp and celebration, I am completely vested in its continued occurrance.

the likes of which has never been seen anywhere in the world to last over 200 years.

Not sure how accurate that would be.

So, regardless of the "200 years" part, you're in full agreement with the rest of her statement?

Because that was the only part that you chose to comment on.

Not necessarily but it's the part on which I chose to comment.

I watched it all and loved it all. I am also aware of some of the underhanded things some Republicans did in their states while this was going on in D.C.