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The Inauguration


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Elizabeth Alexander

 

Elizabeth Alexander was born in 1962 in Harlem, New York, and grew up in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Boston University (where she studied with Derek Walcott), and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Her collections of poetry include American Sublime (Graywolf Press, 2005), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Antebellum Dream Book (2001); Body of Life (1996); and The Venus Hottentot (1990).

 

Alexander

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I'm expecting much of myself and everyone else. It's not about sitting and waiting for him to fix everything.

There's a little scrolling bar at the bottom of my screen with messages people have written in and they're all "this is the best thing to ever happen in history". I want to write in and be like "come on now, this is a special moment, yes, but he's hasn't done anything yet!".

 

 

 

Yellow can mellow! Brown can stick around. The red man can get ahead man.

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Yes.

 

Obama's the 44th President, but the 43rd person to hold the office. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th.

 

Technically shouldn't the number be far higher, like when Vice Presidents are sworn in for a small amount of time when presidents are incapacitated?

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Technically shouldn't the number be far higher, like when Vice Presidents are sworn in for a small amount of time when presidents are incapacitated?

I don't believe they take the presidential oath in those cases.

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Yeah, they aren't actually considered the "President" but the "Acting President". Anyway, the transcript does say forty-four. I agree on the "who cares" front, but shit you think they would get that right.

 

I'm glad this is done and we can get this going, whatever "this" turns out to be.

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Technically shouldn't the number be far higher, like when Vice Presidents are sworn in for a small amount of time when presidents are incapacitated?

Yeah, as noted, Acting President doesn't take the Oath. And, as it turns out, most of the times the President has been incapacitated, nobody did anything. Woodrow Wilson was a veritable vegetable for the last two years of his Presidency and nobody even knew.

 

edit: and Analogman got the Wilson thing, too.

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This. Post. Is. Like. That. Poem. Was. Read.

 

Yeah, she overdid it with the delivery a little, but it was still a wonderful poem. I'm looking forward to reading it again.

 

I wish I had more time to really soak in all of this. It still feels a little surreal, since I've gotten so used to feeling jaded and disgruntled about politics in the last eight years, which has been most of my adult life. Today is the very first day a president I voted for is ruling our country. While there's nothing noticeably different, change feels possible, which is reassuring. It certainly isn't going to just fall into our laps, but it was so good to hear Obama talk about taking responsibility. That's the first step, I think--not just for the politicians, but for all of us. If I have one hope for this administration, it's that it helps to reconnect government to the people, and, in turn, that Americans start to feel a greater sense of social (economic, political, etc.) responsibility.

 

I'm off to run some errands, and to get my syllabi ready for the start of the semester tomorrow.

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