Of Politics and Teeth Pulling

2009/01/20 - Inauguration Day!

Barack Hussein Obama, the United States' first African-American president, will be sworn in today. Even more symbolic is that the event takes place the day after the annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But you probably already knew all that. You'd have to be living under a rock to have missed that news. It is an historic event (yes, I prefer "an historic" to "a historic". Deal with it). The loonies on the right are chanting "anti-Christ!" while the loonies on the left are celebrating it like the second coming of Jesus, minus all the Revelation drama of course. The rest of us are holding our breath until noon, when we can exhale the enormous sigh of relief we've been suppressing since November. Ding dong, the Bush is gone... The old administration passes away and the new takes control in the 44th peaceful transfer of power since the founding of this country. That fact alone is worthy of celebration, considering what other parts of the world have to go through/have gone through when control of the government of their countries change. The fact that we can peacefully transition from a government based on secrecy, lies, false pretenses, anti-intellectualism, religious encroachment and abuses of civil liberties in the name of protection, to one of (potentially, hopefully) respect, intelligence, integrity, science, common sense and the promotion of true civil rights both home and abroad; that fact is especially praise-worthy.

And yet, even in the face of these momentous events, life goes on. The cascade of tiny events that make up most of our days collect into the foundations of our lives, preempting even the celebratory atmosphere of these historic days. Children must be fed, beds made, laundry done and the bacteria that eat away at our teeth don't recognise holidays. My Turkey, only six years old, had to have a tooth extracted yesterday. The sobbing of a child, wracked with pain, and their accusations, uttered from around a mouthful of bloody gauze, of "I trusted you! You said it wouldn't be bad!" are enough to drown out the cheers and celebrations, no matter the historic importance of the day.

Fortunately, the pain subsided, then disappeared; the accusations were forgotten and my Turkey hugged me and thanked me for taking care of him. And now we can start to focus on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of witnessing a member of one of the most oppressed and discouraged populations of this country rise above rampant racism and prejudice and be sworn in as President of the United States of America, sweeping into office with an unprecedented 80+% approval rating by those he is to govern.

January 2009 will be remembered both for its historic inauguration and (at least in my family) for the extraction of the offending tooth.