Listening to some commentators, you would think Tuesday's inauguration speech of President Barack Obama was mediocre and without substance. Some said "it lacked structure"; others said it had no "memorable lines" like "Ask not what your country can do for you …", or "there is nothing to fear but fear itself". It seems that some people were looking for scintillating rhetoric rather than substance.
Maybe the speech was not the triumphal display many were expecting, or the chapter and verse of policy to come, but substance there was aplenty, and there were enough hints to tease us about what we can expect from him over the next four years. Let me share some lines from the speech with you.
"As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake". Obama is saying that no matter how much a society is being threatened by violence and terror, that does not justify taking away people's human rights. Hmmm!
Might does not make right
" … our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. … our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example." In other words, might does not make right. If the USA is to tell the world about justice and equality, it must set an example. This is the exact opposite of what we have come to expect from the USA.
"On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics … the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply … our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed". I wonder if Obama's words mean that the USA will finally make peace with Cuba, and end the tension with Venezuela and Bolivia?
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve." Obama is saying that the USA has come through slavery and civil war and segregation (he is the best evidence of that) and, therefore, he believes that global tensions can be resolved - like those between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, and in Darfur and Rwanda.
Alleviating poverty important
" … a nation cannot prosper long when it favours only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good." Government policy must not favour only big business. Alleviating poverty is important because the prosperous will not be safe otherwise.
"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. This is the price and the promise of citizenship." Selfishness and materialism and a 'me first' attitude is anathema to the way forward for the world.
"We will restore science to its rightful place … roll back the spectre of a warming planet … we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it." Discharges of greenhouse gases in the USA are a major cause of global warming, and it is causing suffering outside the USA. His presidential era will be concerned with environmental issues.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.