Obama's inaugural speech

Today I drove to Bainbridge Island for a meeting of the Fresh Start program, and Martin Yabroff, the Rector of St. Andrew's in Tacoma, rode with me.

We started driving at 9:00 AM, and we turned on the radio just in time to hear Barack Obama give the oath of office. Then we listened intently as he gave his inaugural address. My heart soared as I listened to his voice. I thought his speech was a masterpiece, a monument of prose.

Obama spoke with lofty words as he called on the ideals of our nation. He acknowledged that we are living in a time of crisis but he called on us to achieve greatness as we have in the past.

He recalled the values that have made us what we are - "hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism."

He called for a new approach in solving our nation's problems, an approach that leaves behind the squabbling of the past. He said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works."

He remembered the sacrifice of those who have served our country. "As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages."

I thought his words were inspired and inspiring. Quite an amazing speech for a man whose father might have been refused service at a restaurant in that same city 60 years earlier. I heard no words of bitterness or anger or cynicism from Barack.

And he used the "G" word - God. He concluded with the classic benediction: "God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."

I'm hopeful. I'm very hopeful.
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