IT'S NOT WHERE YOU FINISH, IT'S WHERE YOU START

Dear Readers,
When it comes to formal ceremonies, Americans just can't get the rebelliousness out of their systems. We're a nation of rules that resents having to have rules, so we tend not to be too formal, even when the occasion demands - It's somehow not very democratic. Just think, if we'd played by the rules during our revolutionary war, we never would have hid behind rocks and trees to shoot Redcoats while they marched towards us in a disciplined line. And vastly outgunned and outnumbered, we would have lost the rebellion that made us. So it's no surprise that today's Inauguration of President Obama adds another chapter to our informal-formality history.
I can't resist the opportunity to offer a small, constructive critique of this morning's ceremony. As political theatre, nothing in the world touches the peaceful transfer of the awesome power of the Presidency, but compared, let's say, to a British state occasion, it had all the polish of a junior high school production of Our Town. In retrospect, I would have cut a couple of items: First, there was no need for the instrumental music written by John Williams. The opening -and I assume, original -portion was dismal and better suited for a state funeral. Then, Williams drops in a huge chunk of an Aaron Copeland shaker-inspired tune. That's nice, but sticking it in Williams' funereal dirge made no sense. It was a ham-handed mashup, at best. Besides, what needed to follow Aretha Franklin's expressive take on My Country 'Tis Of Thee? (I do wish she had sung 'Natural Woman' instead, but that's a highly personal preference). Why follow the 'Queen Of Soul' with the 'Master Of Droll'? The Quartet, led by Yitzak Perlman and Yo Ma-Ma was brilliant, but wasted on such a pointless piece of music, and the positioning on the Capitol Balcony, above the inaugural platform, reminded me a little of the ascent into 'Kitchen Stadium' of one of the Japanese Iron Chefs (Iron Chef Italian, I think), the one who rises up accompanied by a string quartet. Plus, Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden had to wrench themselves around in their seats to look at the players (mostly, I suspect, out of politeness), which made them both look awkward and uncomfortable. Or maybe they couldn't believe that such A-list musicians were playing such dreck -especially since there was no way to upstage Aretha.
Second, the 'poem', written and read by some famous chick poet was awful. To my trained ears, it sounded a lot like a fifth-grade civics essay. It didn't have any sort of iamb that I could discern, and didn't even rhyme. Why do Inaugurals have to feature a poem anyway? Just because JFK had Robert Frost read out a specially-commissioned poem, every President thinks he has to have a poem, too. If poetry is sooo important to the swearing-in ceremony, why don't they just get someone like, say, James Earl Jones to read out a really good one, like 'The Charge Of The Light Brigade'? Too bad George Carlin's dead, as he would have been my choice for both poet and reader. And considering my estimation of how we conduct formal ceremonies, totally appropriate.
Joe Biden was funny as he stood up to take his oath of office. He had his hand up before he got to his feet, like he had a last minute question or something. Biden seemed over-prepared, probably because it's the same oath that a US Senator takes, and he's been in the senate for about 12 terms, so I'm sure he says it in his sleep. It looked like he wanted to go on swearing some more oaths after he had completed, but was forced to sit down for the main event.
President Obama had his hand up early, too, but maybe it's because he had no confidence in Chief Justice John Roberts' ability to do his job correctly. The Chief Justice usually asks the President if he's ready to take the oath of office (Warren Burger was the master at this), then asks him to raise his right hand, something Roberts never even attempted to do. Then, he compounded his lack of protocol by screwing up the first line of the oath! Poor Obama, hearing the mangled intonement, looked nonplussed, and seemed to want to say, you what? I wish he had. Don't they even practice all this stuff? Even the guy who plays '1st man' in some play where he walks on and off stage within 30 seconds shows up for a few rehearsals. They eventually stumbled through the swearing-in, but I wish they had just stopped and started again. (Maybe Obama got thrown off when Justice Roberts used his full middle name.) Anyway, they looked like two guys who were meeting for the first time.
When it came to his inaugural address, President Obama kept to the safe and serious tone that he's adopted since his election. His rhetoric was sensible and sound and never strayed into the hubristic. He delivered the words well, looking sure and confident, but there wasn't much poetry (it was a bad day for poetry) and at first, it seemed more like a to-do list than a call to arms. But he rallied at the end, taking on the cadences of a well-seasoned evangelist. It seemed like a speech with attainable goals and rhetoric he could back up with real action. Obama came across as a guy who would rather ditch all this ceremony pffaff, and get right down to work - a stark contrast to George W. Bush who looked like a guy who couldn't wait to get to Camp David, as soon as his inaugural speeches were finished. At the end, the Reverend Joseph Lowery, one of the last survivors of the original civil rights leadership, gave a spirited and canny closing prayer that was the best job from the podium all day - even surpassing Aretha.
If there was little drama in the President's speech, then dying Senator Ted Kennedy provided plenty when, at the post-inaugural luncheon at the Capitol, he had a seizure, scaring the bejesus out of everyone and nearly wiping Obama off tomorrow's front pages ( 'Kennedy Dies At Lunch....oh, and Obama Sworn in"). Ted's going to be OK, but it was a close one. But the rest of the day went according to plan, in spite of the delays which put much of the Inaugural Parade in the gloaming. Give Obama credit though, he earned his first Presidential bones by staying for the whole interminable pageant. I know that I wouldn't want to be forced to sit and watch 55 high-school bands blarting out marshallized versions of 'We've Only Just Begun' for hours on end while I was dying to get my feet under the desk in the Oval Orafice.
So, in spite of a few glitches, we begin a promising new chapter in American life. Obama could have just walked on the platform, taken the oath, said 'thanks' and walked off and this day would still rank among the greatest in US history. He didn't, of course, and went along with the fractured formality that passes as American ceremony. We're not royalty, we don't practice curtsying for weeks and we don't prance around in period costume when we do something important. Dude, it's America, not Luxembourg! Though some of our leaders have tried to elevate public ceremony to Asian or European levels, it usually doesn't work, and thank goodness it doesn't. We've had as many Presidents deliver their maiden speeches with soup stains on their lapels as not, yet we're still the envy of the world. The most important thing is that our leader is a guy we chose, and if we don't like him, we can dump him next time around. But I have a sneaking feeling that this guy, Obama, is going to be one of the best, and we can all take credit for that, informally.
Well, I would have been too choked up with pride to put the kettle on today, but I had a look at my 401-k and decided it's going to be rocky for a while longer, and I needed a little comfort. So brew up, America, because 4 o'clock is happening everywhere, and it's time for a cup of inaugural tea.