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I watched parts of the ceremony on television tonight, for three general reasons. First, I have found the tragic event in Tucson difficult. Not only does it cause frustration on a rational level – it should never have happened – but it creates stress on an emotional level as well. The shooting of a political leader brings back ugly and painful memories from the past, and the senseless death of an innocent, nine year old girl is upsetting.
Second, I find human rituals fascinating. This evening's ritual was obviously of interest, as it shows – at least on some levels – what it is that helps many people to cope. Much like a funeral, this ritual event helps people to accept the reality of what happened. The time between Saturday and today combine a sense of the surreal, combined with an emotional roller-coaster. The group ritual helps to mark the end of the initial grieving period, and when conducted and experienced correctly, allows the individuals within the group to begin to move forward.
And third, I was interested in seeing and hearing how President Barack Obama would address the crowd, and indeed the American public. Several dynamics come in to play here. I've long been impressed by this young man's communication skills. Now, that's not limited in the sense that his enemies say that all he can do is read a good speech. I'm talking about his talent for writing most of his speeches, especially the most important ones. His ability to identify what he wants to say, and to then arrange his ideas in such a way as to deliver the message to a wide variety of listeners.
All of us who watched the “news” today know that the chattering heads were obsessing on if he would be “political,” as if any presidential address has the ability to somehow be non-political. And we know that President Obama is held to a much different standard, by numerous factions in the greater society, than other presidents have been. Add to that the fact that he was talking about a political act – the attempted assassination of a member of the House of Representatives, the assassination of a federal judge, and the murderous attack on a crowd of citizens exercising their Amendment 1 rights – and the task at hand was pretty difficult.
I thought that President Obama delivered. I say this as a member of the democratic left, who supported Senator Obama in the democratic primaries, and who has voiced a fair amount of both positive and negative things about his performance as President of the United States. In my opinion, he spoke to the important points that everyone should be focused on. In the future, he may need to speak in greater detail about some of the important aspects, including the hatred that the rigid, angry right-wing is injecting into the socio-political climate. I expect he may say more about this in a major speech later this month.
Tonight, I was favorably impressed by what President Obama said. Especially the part about making the public discourse worthy of those who were killed on Saturday. That's the Barack Obama that this nation needs.
Peace, H2O Man
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