Part IV. The Meaning Behind An Inaugural Poem for President Obama

Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.

Click here for Part I, Part II, and Part III Explanatory Notes for "A Poem Written in Honor of President Barack Obama's Inauguration 2013."

The next stanza is related to the previous regarding some voices still being helplessly entrapped. They are not adequately represented by their leaders. As all the voices on each side make their demands, eventually nothing can be heard, or as you see in the “fiscal cliff” drama happening on Capitol Hill, nothing gets done. Or, very little very slowly. An utter waste of political posturing.

The voices on each side

                       clamored fiercely to be heard.

Above the din there came a cry

                                    of one solitary word.

The Word was heard by all except

                  to each the sound was different.

Each sister spoke the same word,

                   But the sound still felt absurd.

Here’s a recurring theme in my writing: the Tower of Babel. Even if everyone was silent to allow one person to speak, we are all so prejudiced by our own desires, morals, and expectations, that even if we were considerate and courteous enough to take time to listen to one another, we would not be able to understand anyone else but those with whom we identify.

Have you ever had Person A and Person B say the same thing, X, to Person C, and Person C will react entirely differently depending on who does the telling. It’s not only how, it is the fact that Republicans will react badly to what Democrats have to say and vice versa. Predisposed to being negative, a great human virtue.

Yet we Americans still tout diversity like no one else. Lots of languages, lots of things to be learned from each other. America's "Melting Pot", our "Great Experiment" has been the foundation of our faith in ourselves and our future.

Fi-i-inally, we get to modern day America. I wish I had more time to include more great leaders, but there is a certain time relevance to this poem. If I had waited years the way I usually do before presenting a poem, no one would be interested in it. Hence, the rhyme and meter will be perfected over time, years from now, one syllable at a time.

First, you have to figure out who “He” is in this section of the poem. For “He” is looking toward all roads. By now you now that a road represents America’s History, potential choices, actual choices by a diverse people. The Person facing all roads is a leader who is inclusive of all people, rich, poor, disabled, super-smart, entrepreneurial, people who didn’t vote for him (how do wealthy people feel left out again?)

Well from the title of the poem you know who this Inaugural Poem was written for (there’s only one inauguration in the near future). But how can you be sure? Well, three dozen is thirty-six, and 36 + 8 = 44! Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States! And it rhymes with “gait” and “Fate”! I patted myself on the back for that one, as it was unplanned and came like divine inspiration.

With His face turned to all roads,

                                   He walked with easy gait

on our winding road that split

                                three dozen times plus eight;

with Bright Eyes and Brighter Smile,

                                      He offered me his hand:

“Will you go with me he,” He asked,

                                 “Or will you go with Fate?”

So, the last “He” is BO, and you know it’s him because he has Bright Eyes and Brighter Smile! An easy majority of people surveyed found Obama to be likable and trustworthy. Again, the poem’s narrator is given a choice as she was in the beginning with Washington and Lincoln, or Abraham, George (are you hearing hints of “Anybody here, see my old friend Martin? Can you tell me where he’s go-aw-aw-one? He freed a lot of people but the good they seem to die young. I just looked around and he’s gone…” That’s why if I had time, I would include more examples of great leaders!

Does that mean if we follow our great leaders that we are contravening Fate? Are we crossing Fate and what other outcome will we reach if not our fate? We will not go into a discussion of free choice and fatalism here. Suffice to say that one can, believe many, choose freely and still go with fate, if that is one’s desire, i.e., to go with fate.

However, if one believes that one is going against fate by following Washington, Lincoln, and Obama, then it is consistent with the last stanza, where the roads plural, are blocked by Fate. Oh, ye Fate! Always causing trouble! See the repeated reference to love and hate. The easy explanation is that these leaders make Americans have faith in their future. The tedious explanation follows.

In the first section, it was explained that the lines of love and Hate in Washington’s eyes are not his but reflecting an already diverse population, as America’s first immigrants were persecuted minorities. Again, we see the lines of love and hate on Fate’s hands, you know, the creases that tell your fortune (forget what they are called). Which means what? That different factions of our country will always hate each other? No, more like there will always be disagreement, great discord if you will.

I took his hand and saw the roads

                             blocked by the Hand of Fate.

On Her palm the tears of love

                           drowned out the lines of hate.

The Halls of Justice are not built

                                         within a single day.

With luck their expanse will never end, 

                                Yet United, We can wait.

The middle lines about the Halls of Justice I remember reading somewhere; they were above an archway or entrance in a building somewhere, leading into a library, I believe. I forget the  author, maybe it was anonymous. I think the saying goes somewhat like this: The Halls of Justice are not built in one day and with any luck, they will never be completed. Very appropriate, I thought. I added the last line in about how we can wait. The first version had, “Yet, Together, We can wait.” I didn’t want to be too Doritos Cheesy by using “United” but hey, we are the United States so stand proud.

Why did I end with the concept of justice? Besides the fact that that’s what my muse ordered me to do. An ex post rationalization suggests that America has been the vanguard of fighting for Justice. Thus, if our country were to be characterized in one respect, it might be that we stand for justice. Whooaah, hold on, I can hear everyone protesting now (at least you’re in agreement). Now, there are many, many, many, people who will disagree with that. I didn’t say that we are far enough along on the road to justice, see again the last stanza about the Halls of Justice never being completed, all I said is that Americans (most of us) do try. And it is our real attempt to be fair that makes everyone optimistic that the best is yet to come!

Add to the mix our great diversity and justice is even harder to attain. In nations with homogeneous populations, e.g., Europe, when you’ve got mostly White Caucasians, you’re not going to get the friction we get here in America, so just because we got more friction doesn’t mean we aren’t doing as well as other advanced nations. You just try adding nonwhites equivalent to 20%, 30%, 40% of your population during a recession when everyone is competing for jobs and see how well you get along.

Americans, for all our individualism, really do love each other. See the scads of flowers and crowds of people coming to Newtown, Connecticut. And that's why we have so much to look forward to in the future!

Check out the Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama! With Cliff Notes and Cheat Sheets, i.e., Background and Explanatory Notes, the Meaning behind the Rhyme! Here's a nice formatted copy of  My Inaugural Poem for President Obama on Amazon, (with an Author's Note, lol).

A poem I wrote sort of for Mitt: "A Tale of Two Romneys by Ssal Nogard." Check out Politifact, a Political Fact Checker that follows elections closely. Politifact handed out It's Lie of the Year Award, a dubious distinction for the person who can most seriously warp the truth.

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MY OTHER WRITINGS AND POETRY

PrincessBoo Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

What I Said When I Saw Salvador Dali's the Metamorphosis of Narcissus in the Tate Modern (Besides, Wow, This is Really Small!)

A Story I Wrote When I Couldn't Make it to the Waterfalls of Iguazu (Iguacu)

If You are a Led Zeppelin Fan, You Will Like This

A Modern Day Medusa (with a lot of Baggage and a Conscience)

I Wanted to Bet on the Election but It's Not Allowed Over Here

Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.

Having had time to catch up with Nate Silver's 538 Blog, which covered the presidential election in a rigorous statistical way for the layman, i.e., spoke stats in an accessible way that people without statistical training could make sense of all the election polls that came out daily, I remember that about three weeks before the election. I called all the Swing States for Obama. (I cannot recall if I included North Carolina or not, but if I did, I was only one state off.)

Still, I was at most only one Swing State off, while all the other election, poll, and statistical pundits were several states off. Note that I kept with my prediction over three before while Nate Silver, ABC, NBA, yadda yadda yadda maintained that Florida was still a toss up, with most of them believing that Florida would go to Romney.  Most also thought Romney had a slight edge in Virginia.

See Nate Silver's 538 Blog's Predictions One Day Before the Election.

However, I was a true believe in Obama Man until the very last. I staunchly refused to agree that Virginia or Florida would go to Romney, and even on the night of the election, when Romney was leading in Florida, I was in denial (much like Carl Rove about Ohio). Lo and behold, a couple of days later, Florida's still counting and has now certified their state's election votes for Obama. So, even with the latest polls up to the day before the electin, seems the pundits and statisticians didn't do any better than my forecast 3.5 weeks before.

It's like I said; it's hard for the pundits and statisticians sitting in their studio and computer labs to see what is going on in the real world, with volunteers standing in front of post offices and groceries stores, registering voters, giving people rides to early voting polls from churches and back, cold calling threatening people that if they do not vote early, they WILL get another phone call from us. Actually, Democrats registered new voters at a ratio of 10:1, that's ten-to-one! That means that if each new registered Republican in Florida voted (although it is highly unlikely to get 100% of new registered voters to vote), then all the Dems had to do was to get 11% of new registered voters to vote to match the Republicans.

(Tangent: It is the ground game, baby, and underlying this is a profound love for Obama. Ideas and Obama. You have to see it to believe it. The people in the Nevada State Democratic Party Office were not working until 11 p.m. each night for a candidate that only somewhat inspired them, like many conservatives felt about Romney, the volunteers and staff at the Nevada State Democratic Headquarters were full on stoked about BO. There were actually many people who flew in from around the country, taking time off from work, to help with the campaign, 'cuz they felt that they couldn't just sit there and do nothing!

Anyway, we partied late at the Mandalay but not as late as is typical for Sin City because it had been a long day. Many of us had only slept a few hours over the course of several days. But we were happy with a halo that came from the very core. Tangent's end, if there is such a thing, lol That mean's that's a joke and I think it's funny but I have to highlight it or else no one else will notice it! End of tangent, get it? Never mind, a friend and I are still debating what is meant by "end" in this case.)

So keeping up with all these stats, I looked up the odds on the election, because as any good statistician knows, odds on betting are usually at least as accurate as polls taken by Gallup, Rasmussesn, ABC, CNN, internal polls by the Romney party (see 538 blog for discussion of Romney's Exceedingly Inaccurate Internal Polls "When Internal Polls Mislead, a Whole Campaign May Be to Blame") because people put their money where their mouths are! The overseas gambling websites were offering 8-to-1 if Obama won 310-329 electoral votes, which was what I thought he would win (I was sure BO would win all of the Swing States, plus or minus one, again lol!) I was so confident, I was willing to bet money that I did not have!

I kept trying to place a bet on all the sites that OddsChecker sent me to and only a few sites had bets for predicting electoral votes. Hey, it's one thing t o bet on whether Ohio goes Republican or Democrat, or bet on the number of Swing States each candidate wins, it's another thing to think you know enough about each Swing State to predict what the electoral vote will be! The only site I found that gave odds on electoral votes was LadBrokes and they didn't take bets from Americans. Why not? I wondered, and looked everywhere for sites that took bets on the election. Oh, it occurred to me, probably not allowed in the U.S. because it would lead to some real perversion of the system. That dream lasted all of 43 minutes.

So, in order to keep me from talking Election Day In and Night Out, another one of my friends said, "All right already, I'll give you 8 to 1 odds if you will just be quiet about the election from now until then!" He meant Election Day and I said that I did not think that I could go that long. Could I at least talk about the election for two hours a day while my bet was on? Okay, he said, so I planned, I planned to bet but never had any money to bet, because if you read my previous post, I was hard up scrounging up $5 to donate to Obama's campaign, which I eventually was able to save up, ;-)

My friend asked me: So how much are you planning to put down?
I said: If I had the money, $500.
I'm going to keep it if you lose, he said. Tired of all this nonstop jibber jabber. When have you ever been so interested in elections?
I said: I've been since Gore v. Bush when the Supreme Court Justices who always championed states rights, took over the state just so they could rule for Bush!

So, by the time I had $5 to donate to Obama's fund, I had to head off to Las Vegas to help with the grassroots campaign and Election Day came and went, and it wasn't until two days after the election that I had enough to gamble. When my friend saw the electoral results, he said, "Whew! Thank goodness you were to poor to gamble. I would have been in to you for thousands!"

Now, this is coming from a girl who never gambles when in Las Vegas. I hit all the buffets and spend my tie chowing down on food until I have a belly ache, then pop out the Mylanta, and chow down some more!

However, once, I did gamble slots at a nickel machine when they still used real coins that made that semi-magical, entirely-cheap clanking noise and won 72 nickels! That's from betting only 1 nickel! Or maybe I won 144 nickels, somewhere between $3.60 - $7.20. I immediately stopped, did not make one more bet, because I KNOW WHEN TO STOP, collected my Handful of Nickels, and waited for a friend to come by because they were So Heavy I couldn't walk anywhere without them without being stared at and was afraid that someone would hit me over the head for my loot.

Thus it was ironic that the ONLY time I've ever wanted to bet, it wasn't to be, but at least I know in my heart that if I COULD HAVE bet, I would have been on the bullseye because when you've got something to believe in, you simply cannot lose!

4 More Years!
Cuatro Mas Anos!
Quatre Something Ans?


Check out the Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama! With Cliff Notes and Cheat Sheets, i.e., Background and Explanatory Notes, the Meaning behind the Rhyme!

A poem I wrote sort of for Mitt: "A Tale of Two Romneys by Ssal Nogard."

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MY OTHER WRITINGS


What I Said When I saw Salvador Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus

PrincessBoo Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed