Positive Change: Inauguration

*smile* a very uplifting thought to focus on as we usher in a new president from the Christian Science Board of Directors:

A New Day

Thank you muchly to Lyndsey Gore for finding this for me:
As a precursor to the HBO "We Are One" live concert special yesterday, there was a blessing from Bishop Gene Robinson; it was not televised. But you can go to video from the speech at salon.com:

Robinson's Blessing

The text from the speech is as follows:

"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears -- tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger -- anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace.

Amen."

Such wonderful thoughts about this shift of power, politics, and thought. I was troubled last night as I was talking with my mom about her students -- multiple ones have told her that President-Elect Obama (ha, the last time I will get to say that) should be assassinated because he is the devil. I cannot vouch that he will be the president that we will ever have but certainly he has done nothing thus far to be likened to the devil. (Though this troubles me on another level because I don't believe in the devil....) We need to hear more voices such as those above to uplift thought. This is not a time to stick our heads in the sand and blindly trust a new president but it is a time to be supportive. So often it seems in the past 8 years I've heard defenders of President Bush reprimand people for questioning the president, claiming that such questioning was unpatriotic. It seems that the same group of people are the ones doing the questioning now....

The President is the President is the President, regardless of his policies or actions. It commands a certain amount of respect and also a healthy amount of criticism and watchfulness from the citizens. I will admit that while I did not go to the lengths that others did in mocking President Bush, I certainly said my fair share of derrogatory comments. And for those, I wish I'd done more research and been more watchful to form my own opinions outside of the bias of any media outlet, my friends, and family. I am thankful to have always kept the viewpoint that however much I disagree with President Bush's actions and policies, I cannot know what he knew in carrying out his decisions. There is surely so much that we do not know about the presidency and the demands and the weight of this country on presidents' shoulders. Perhaps the only indication is the amount they age in a very short time, coming in spry and leaving as old, weary men. (Yes, I used the word spry.)

The point of my long rambling is that I'm so very glad to see support and optimism that aren't blind.