2013 Inauguration: Not looking back, but moving forward

          
Inauguration

Jarrod Clay

            Standing in front of a sea of American flags and “Obama” chants, President Barack Obama stepped to the podium and addressed the nation for the 57^th Presidential Inauguration. Obama, the first African American President, has now officially started his second term in office. His first term had plenty of peaks and valleys, and it was apparent early in his speech Obama is not looking back at the past four years, but is prepared for push forward into his second term.

            Given all that has happened the past four years, especially the events that have happened within the last few months including the fiscal cliff scare, the Newtown, Conn. school shooting and the new ban on assault weapons, plenty of eyes and ears were on President Obama. That being said, many including myself were interested in how the President would handle his second inauguration speech, and how the American people would react. With the 2013 Inauguration on my television and my laptop in front of me I listened and watched carefully for what the President said and how the nation reacted.

            From the time Obama stepped to the podium, it was clear he was not focusing on the previous four years. In fact, the President mentioned his first term just one time when he defended his support for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

            “These things do not sap out initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risk that make the country great,” Obama said.
            Rather than looking back, it appeared Obama was focused on moving the nation forward. While the official slogan for the 2013 Inauguration was “Faith in America’s Future”, the major theme that surfaced time and time again during Obama’s speech was togetherness. Seven times throughout his speech Obama referenced American moving forward together, and how if the nation hoped to move forward, it would have to be as one, undivided nation.

            “Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.  We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together,” Obama said.

            When Obama repeatedly used the term “together”, he was referring to more than just the people of the nation, but to the government officials. In fact, the President said its time for Congress to put party differences aside and get things done on Capitol Hill.

            President Obama said like those in Congress, when he is sworn into office he takes an oath, “an oath to God and country, not part or faction”. This basically says the nation needs to put its political differences aside and work together for the good of the nation. To me, this was very refreshing to hear.

            Many, including myself were somewhat surprised at how little the President spoke about the past term, but it makes sense considering Obama will deliver his State of the Union Address in just about a month.

            Overall, Obama spoke very little about policies, especially the ones most people probably assumed he would like the economy and gun control. In fact, he only specifically spoke about 2 political topics, and both were surprising to hear about in an inauguration address.

            President Obama made it clear that one of his main goals would be to face the threat of climate change and further pursue the path to finding sustainable energy sources. The other surprising subject Obama mentioned was gay rights, becoming the first president to ever mention the topic in an inauguration address.

            “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said.

            During his address, Obama repeatedly spoke about the importance of the people of the United States, so given the current state of the nation, how did the American people perceive Obama’s inauguration speech?

            Personally, I believe one of the best ways to decide how the people feel about a subject is to take a look at social media; after all, social media dominates society. This also gives you a wide variety of opinions from both ends of the political spectrum.

            Some television reporters made a fuss that there were not as many people in attendance as four years ago, but I think that is to be expected. First of all, it’s going into Obama’s second term and while it is still a historic event, it’s not nearly as historic as it was four years ago.  While, yes, the attendance was down, there were still thousands filling the National Mall.

            Back to the how America used social media to express their thoughts on the Presidential Inauguration. As soon as television coverage began Twitter and Facebook exploded with politically charged updates from all around the world.

            “Presidential Inauguration” was not only trending nationally on Twitter, but worldwide as well. Multiple other phrases were trending nationwide including “inaug2013”, “POTUS” and “First Lady”.

            Scrolling through thousands of tweets by using searching trends such as "POTUS", I received a full report of the inauguration ceremony by people on both ends of the political spectrum. This is exactly why I feel social media is a great way to gage the public’s feelings about an issue, because people tend to remove their filters once they decide to update their status.

            There were plenty of status updates and tweets pouring in criticizing the Obama administration’s performance the past four years, and many still seemed to bitter about the Mitt Romney loss in the 2012 election. One negative status that stands out to me says very little, but so much at the same time- “1459 and counting”. Without directly saying anything about President Obama, this person's Facebook status clearly shows their personal feelings towards the President by starting a countdown to the end of his second term.

            Just as there were plenty of negative updates during the inauguration; there were just as many positive tweets and Facebook updates. The tweet that stands out possibly more than any other to me not only referred to the Presidential Inauguration, but the fact that it was held on Martin Luther King Day- “Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Obama is that dream.”

            In the thousands of tweets and statuses I saw there was one theme that continued to show up time and time again. Conservatives and Liberals alike updated their Twitter and Facebook pages with statuses such as, “I'm not the biggest fan of the #POTUS, but he has my utmost respect and my prayers!” Even famous athletes and celebrities chimed in on social networking sites including PGA golfer Rory McIlroy who said, "I must say.. I love watching Barack Obama make speeches #inspiring".

            The common theme was that no matter the party affiliation, most people support and respect President Obama because he is just that, the President of the United States. As someone who fully supports this idea, this was something great to see happening by the thousands. President Obama is the leader of the greatest nation in the world, and will be for the next four years. Whether or not you agree with his politics, President Obama should have the respect and support of the nation.

            In his speech, Obama spent very little time focusing on the past, and according to thousands of people on social media websites, they are no longer focused on the past either.

Although it was just one ceremonial day, the Presidential Inauguration seems to have inspired a nation to come “together” and move forward.