Poetry and motion (thoughts on the swearing-in ceremony)

1.

Boos echoed throughout the crowd as President Bush, Vice President Cheney and several GOP congressmen were introduced

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, I think it was, muttered something about that being "bad form." I like Maddow but I think the crowd needed this chance to tell Bush, as directly as they could, just what they think of his incompetence.

There is nothing bad form about that. If his disgrace had ever been dealt with as it should've been, maybe the rest of us wouldn't have been reduced to boos (and shoes).

2. Ok, the Roberts thing. That was beautiful. As RadicalRuss put it in Pam's House Blend:

So I asked rhetorically, "What could George W. Bush fuck up in the last thirty minutes of his presidency?"
I got the answer in the form of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, installed by George W. Bush (and a feline Senate), fucking up a simple THIRTY FIVE WORD OATH!

ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear... that I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully... and will to the best of my ability... preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

How incredibly appropriate that the final punctuation mark on the Bush Maladministration is his chief arbiter of the Constitution verbally assaulting it, or lacking the intellectual capacity to memorize it.

3. I liked the poem by Elizabeth Alexander.



I liked it because I thought she chose words that were inevitable yet surprising, which is what poetry (if not all writing) should do.

I also thought that I'd like to see it illustrated as a children's book...

4. The closing prayer was great. Made me smile, and moved me, too.



I'd never seen Dr. Joseph Lowery speak before--the way he looks, and sounds, is just the best!

And as for what he said, well, as some others put it some years ago:

You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Amen, brother. It was a terrific end to the morning.

5. And now, to play us out, The Neville boys:



-singing and playing a song by a great, gay, American songwriter.