TALK TO THE DADDY

Hello. Come on in. The daddy writes about current events, literature, music and, once in a while, drops something on you from back in the day to make you pause and ponder, stop and stare, and begin to wonder. Who knows? You may start to pace the floor, shake your head from side to side, then fall down on bended knees in a praying position and cry, "Lawd, have mercy! What is this world coming to?" Check yourself! But this blog is NOT about the daddy. It's about you: your boos, your fam, your hood, your country...our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. So let's make a pact: the daddy will put it on the track if you'll chase it down and hit him back. Together, we can definitely take it to another level. Shall we?"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

President Obama and the challenge to be great

"A good leaders inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves." --author unknown

Today, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office from Chief Justice Roberts.. He will put his hand on an old Abraham Lincoln bible, hold up another hand and swear to uphold the office as our 44th president.

He will be coming into office at a most trying time for our country. But history shows that challenging times produce great presidents. The civil war produced a great president in Lincoln, the depression a great one in Roosevelt.

Today, we are engaged in two wars, we are billions in debt, we have millions unemployed, we have thousands losing their home each week, we have almost 50 million uninsured, and we have many who have lost just about all financial resources and even more dignity and hope.

President Barack Obama, your time has come. If you get our soldiers out of Iraq, turn the economy around, get more Americans back to work, enact universal healthcare, then you will have stepped onto the stage of history and earned the right to sit beside Lincoln as one of the greatest American presidents of all time.

----------------------------------------

A prayer for the nation and our next president, Barack Obama by Rev. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire*

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president. O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears - for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand - that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

* Note: This wonderful invocation was supposed to be aired by HBO yesterday but never
was. Rev. Robinson is an openly gay Bishop.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY,MacDaddy! I knew where to come to get some inspiration.....I just came from watching the events of the day....I come away HOPEFUL as always that we have elected a great leader...I do not doubt for a moment that he has the audacity to HOPE....I pray that we,the American people, will have the same audacity....Thanks,too, for the invocation that was not aired...You have to wonder if that was intentional..BEAUTIFUL PRAYER...Thanks for sending it my way...We are immersed in HISTORY in the making....We need every word of that prayer....

Anonymous said...

P.S. Don't forget in your list of must do's for the new president EDUCATION....I pray that in reality NO CHILD will be left behind......

Anonymous said...

Great Post MackDaddy! Thanks for Rev. Robinson's prayer. It was very dignified and much more on point than the rambling, incoherent words given by Rick Warren. Dr. Lowery, justly and powerfully had the last word and brought it on home.

Anonymous said...

Happy Inauguration Day, Mac! Isn't this a glorious day to be an American?

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

Happy Inauguration, Sister! Americans got a president in the White House who is not only African American. He is smart, analytical, and unifying. But he can't do it alone. We really need to push his administration to develop policies for working people. It's not just up to him. It's up to us. Blessings.

Rev: Welcome. Yes, Rev. Robinson's prayer was wonderful! Rev. Warren's invocation sound more like a speech than a prayer. To me, he seemed full of himself.

RJ: Yes, it was a glorious day. I know you're a romantic writer, but I hope you find a way to document where you were, what you heard on this day. It's historical; our work as writers will be to capture this historic moment. I'm not sure I can. I hope you can.

It's a great day!

♥ CG ♥ said...

Hey MacDaddy! It'll definitely be a challenge, but given his predecessor's record...we can only go up from here :). Great post!

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

It was great, wasn't it Mac? The over 40 crowd really gets the significance of this day, not that a lot of the 20 & 30-something crowd doesn't. My favorite moment: being sworn in.