Some Thoughts on Inauguration Day.

Irony: Much ado is being made of Barack Obama being black. Am I the only one who sees the irony in a man with one black parent and one white parent being called black? He's not black. He's only half black -- he's also half white. Does no one see the irony of blacks reveling in the blackness of a man whose "blackness" is based on the same criteria historically used to discriminate against and enslave black people? It is a criteria firmly rooted in that most despicable of Human institutions, slavery: a person with any black blood at all -- "even one drop" -- was legally considered black, and could therefore legally be enslaved. It is a criteria that reflected the reality that "mixed race" children were common, most of them fathered by white male owners on their female slaves. Degrees of blackness were carefully labeled: "octoroons" were persons who had a single black great grandparent -- that's 1 out of 16! It didn't actually become scandalous for a white man to father a child by a black woman until he could actually be legally married to the mother of his child. (Being black was more of a stigma than being a bastard!) But to have a black father and white mother was outrageous ("Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"was made in 1967) , even criminal, and potentially fatal for the man who "dared to besmirch white womanhood" especially when you consider that black men have been beaten to death and lynched for accidentally touching, for "not being polite enough" or even for simply "looking at" a white woman -- not just "in the olden days," but within the living, eye-witness memory of people who are watching this event today. Now a man with a black father and a white mother, who were openly married to each other at the time of his birth, is being sworn in as President of the United States. That, to me, is what's historic about this occasion.

Ironic that this event comes after an election in which Democrats were asked to choose between a black man and a white woman, and Republicans were asked to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Ironic how much mention has been made about a black President being sworn in before a building built by slaves -- yet, black members of Congress have been engaged in the business of government in that building since February 25, 1870, when Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected to the US Senate from Mississippi (of all places). And even more ironic, that Obama's black blood comes not from a descendant of those blacks who, against their will, were dragged in chains to these shores and subjected to centuries of dehumanizing servitude, abuse and discrimination. Our newest President is not the descendant of slaves, but of a man who came from Africa to America of his own free will, to continue his education by attending an American college, and who voluntarily returned to his home country once he had accomplished his goals. Still, as the child of a black, Kenyan father, and a white, American mother, he is, literally, an African-American.

Another irony that hits pretty close to home: That a black man would be elected to the highest office in the land, before a woman of any color. There is historical precedent, I'm sorry to say: Black men were enfranchised on February 3, 1870. Women, black or white, were not allowed to vote in national elections until August 26, 1920, nearly 50 years later. Black men had been serving in Congress since 1870, 46 years before Jeannette Rankin became the first woman in Congress, when she was elected to the House of Representatives in November 6, 1916. I hope it won't take 40 more years to finally get a woman elected President. That would mean I'd have to live to be 99 to see it.

However, I think my favorite touch of irony was the comment someone made about the job facing Obama as President as being "a tough row to hoe."

Nice Touches: Our first "black" president will be sworn in using the same Bible that was used to swear in Abraham Lincoln. -- I wonder whose idea that was? Whoever it was, that person had a great sense of history. I just hope this Presidency doesn't end the same way that one did.

A string quartet consisting of a Jewish violinist, a black clarinetist, a Chinese cellist, and a Hispanic pianist playing music for the ceremony. That pretty much covers all the bases.

A woman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is the mistress of ceremonies for the inauguration.

"Re-Re" -- Having The First Lady of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who sang at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, to sing "My Country Tis of Thee" with its stirring chorus "Let Freedom Ring!" - Amen!

Having Rev. Joseph Lowery, an icon of the civil rights movement, deliver the benediction. I cannot imagine how moved that man must have been to find himself in that place at such a time.

Thoughts: A slogan from my youth, born amid the turmoil of the civil rights marches and the tragedy at Kent State, came to mind as one of the innumerable "talking heads" on television commented that possibly as many as 1 billion people world wide were watching live, real-time, as the 44th President of the United States was sworn in: "The whole world's watching." Mind-blowing.

My favorite comment so far regarding the election of Obama has been: "Black people have been cleaning up white people's messes for centuries. We're still doing it." Touché.

CNN has a thing going where they want people who have taken photographs of "The Moment" that President Obama was sworn in to send them to CNN. They are being computer averaged into a 360 panoramic interactive view that can be viewed on the CNN website from the privacy of your home. Cool.

CNN has also been showing a photograph taken by satellite of the Capitol and surrounding areas at "The Moment" that shows the hordes of people out for the inauguration. The pictures we usually see of important events always focus on the "important" people in attendance. I was looking at the satellite picture and thinking of how many pix that I've been in and that I've taken at various family occasions -- and how many times I've heard, "Get a picture of everybody." -- Well, that's just what CNN has done: "Get a picture of everybody" -- Cosmic!

Cisco Systems has used a John Lennon song "Only People" in one of their TV Ads that have been running during the inauguration. His voice is distinctive; it caught my 1964-sensitized ear on first bounce. I first thought "they got (his son) Julian to record it." (Julian does sound eerily like his dad.) But apparently not. Apparently, that's John's original recording they're using. Imagine!

Pepsi's commercials use the song, "My Generation" by "The Who"-- their version of it, too, not a cover, and complete with stutter. It's a clever commercial as it fast forwards through all the generations who have drunk Pepsi. Very nicely done. All the main actors in the commercial are white. Oops!

As I write this very paragraph, I am listening to the U. S. Marine Corps band play "From the Halls of Montezuma" as they march down Pennsylvania Avenue in their dress blues, led by a cadre of Marine Corps officers with drawn swords (held at their sides tips downward in peace, but at the ready to raise in defence), and I think, Semper Fi, dad. Semper Fi.