At first I felt let down by Obama’s inaugural address. I showed it live in my Physics class and was overly concerned about the technical details like volume and lighting levels. It lacked the practiced rhythms of a stump speech which Obama would have had the chance to refine. He talked way too fast for my slow ears to hear what the author of this article was able to discern. That’s how history gets made. The significant ones, like the Gettysburg address, are lost on most listeners. After the speech my class discussed a solar energy physics problem. Everyone agreed that green collar jobs would help get our economy on track.
Please take the time to read and discuss, before attending to those necessary “matters of consequence” which fill up our years.
The speech analysis:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/195515/922
Text and video of the speech:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/inauguration_obama_text
Here’s one of my favorites:
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.