I thought the inauguration speech was great. The only thing that left me with a little gnawing question inside was Bush’s statement that liberty will come to those who love it. What if you’ve never known liberty? How can you love something you don’t know?
Apparently there were 21 drafts of Bush’s second inaugural speech. I used to think it would be fun to be a speech writer but now I’m having second thoughts. Not only would the 21-draft thing provoke my patience (or lack thereof), I would also grow weary of constantly creating words to express the ideals and philosophies embraced by other people. It’s much more freeing to be able to express my own opinions. So, for now, I’ll stay in public policy. And, of course, I’ll happily remain a humble blogger.
_________________
As if it were yesterday, I distinctly remember the inauguration of four years ago. My good friend Meredith flew into town to attend the festivities with me. Somehow (through a very well connected co-worker), we got “tickets” to work (hang coats, pass out memorabilia, etc.) at the inaugural ball. We were so excited to be able to go, we didn’t care a lick that we’d have to work to get in. On January 20, 2001, we got up at the crack of dawn, stuffed our “ball gowns” (i.e., prom-like dresses) into bags, and took the metro into D.C. Pretty soon we met up with other friends and were herded like cattle onto the capitol lawn for the ceremony. It was 34 degrees and raining. (For all you Californians who don’t know what that’s like . . . it was pretty miserable.) But we loved every minute of it. The excitement of the moment carried our spirits and soon we were oblivious to the slushy mud beneath our feet, the dampness on our faces, and the numbness of our fingers.
We watched some of the parade, ate lunch at union station (Kevin was there and I think I liked him even then, but was in serious denial), tried to clean the mud off the hems of our pants, and were soon on our way to the D.C. Armory for the inaugural ball. As we got dressed in a cramped bathroom, Meredith and I both vowed that someday we’d come back as U.S. Senators so we could have covered, front row seats for the inauguration, a warm, ritzy hotel room to change clothes in, and tickets to attend the ball – rather than have to work at it. But, hey, when you’re 20 and 21 years old, respectively, (or any age, really) you can endure a lot when you love adventure and have big dreams. So, we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
We wore our big, poofy dresses, walked around the ball like we were some bigwig’s daughters, took pictures of John Ashcroft and many other famous people (Meredith knew them all), and of course took lots of pictures of George W. Bush and Laura dancing.
As soon as we took our seats in the metro, I fell soundly asleep from exhaustion and Meredith took pictures of me snoozing with my mouth open. (When I later found out, I wanted to kill her.)
And that was the end of that wonderful, blissful, fatiguing day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
It was cool reading your account of the 2001 Innaguration -- I remember emailing with you back and forth (and everyone else on that enormous list!) about where we would meet, who had who's tickets and all that wonderful jazz. I, however, was bummed that I didn't end up getting to hang jackets at a ball. But, the day was incredibly historic and I so fun being with all kinds of friends. Too bad we couldn't be there this yr. :) Kinda weird ... Actually, tho, The 2001 Innag. made it into one a recent "greatest moments of history on TV" book I found out recently. I went excitedly went around pointing my finger to the page to all who were present claiming, "I was there!"
"How can you love something you don’t know?"
Freedom is much like sex. One can love it before one knows it.
-mjr
I think everyone has a taste of liberty - even if small. That small taste can make you want more, even if you are never aware of how much more there is to want.
But those with the imaginations to want the largest quantity of liberty possible are much more inclined than others to actually get it.
The same principle applies to everything else in life.
People who want to be perfect on the bar are much more likely to pass than those who just want to do well (I, for one, never considered anything near perfection an option. I, for one, am not the best example of how to take the bar.)
Those who dream and aspire to the highest degree will reach heights that others never thought possible.
I'm Canadian, but I think ~generally~ what people do when they have 'gnawing questions' about Bush's speeches is remember that he usually has no idea what he's talking about, so we ignore it.
Liked your comments on last time! Got to go this time, and I have to say your experience was very similar to mine:)
One thing on the speech... 21 drafts just means that they changed something in it that many times. Change one word, that is a draft. So it isn't THAT bad:) Not like creating it several times.
Post a Comment