The Inauguration

Part I: Overcoming Bigotry

I take it that the national party that we had on Tuesday was, for our black citizens, a celebration of the accomplishment of one of their own, and, for white citizens, a celebration of the fact that we are not as bigoted as we feared we might be. (Oh yes, there was also that part which was the celebration of the return to Texas of Mr. G W Bush.) Now if we can just keep President Obama alive for a term or two we will have accomplished a good thing. But there is something else in the realm of overcoming bigotry that I have not heard mentioned. For me it is actually just about as good as the election of Mr. Obama.

In 2008 we elected as Vice President a professing Catholic, and here’s the important part. Nobody seemed to notice his faith. In the election of 1960 the religious faith of the winning candidate got roughly as much attention as did Mr. Obama’s ancestry this time. That Joe Biden’s Catholicism was not worth mentioning is an indicator of true progress. (Actually I think John Kerry is also Catholic and the fact that I don’t know for certain proves the same thing, except of course that he didn’t get elected.) Over the course of 48 years apparently the fact that a candidate may be Catholic has become utterly irrelevant. So we pat ourselves on the back over the good, but partial accomplishment of electing an African-American. We will know that we really have arrived in the year that we elect a cross dressing atheist and nobody thinks those things are worth mentioning. Imagine that time.

Part II: A Curious Result

On Sunday, two days before the inauguration, I sent the following email to about a dozen people in my address book. These are people I think of as friends. It was sent with only honest and open minded curiosity. It was certainly not intended to be confrontational or to give offense.

Greetings:

This message is going to everyone who I know to have voted for John McCain, or who I think might have. As you know the capital is all atwitter with preparations for the inauguration. However it is certain that the euphoria does not spread to every person in our country. I find myself very interested in how the McCain voters are feeling about all of this and I'd really appreciate it if you would trouble yourself to let me know. In fact if you would like to send this request on to others who might like to chip in that would be fine with me. I've written some questions, but please feel free to write anything you want.

(Questions deleted)

Here’s the curious part. I got one answer. Here I sit, bewildered.