by Lou Vailant

Created on: February 11, 2009

Barack Obama's inaugural speech was a reflection of his view, or what he felt was a view, for change. An inaugural speech of an American president should outline and direct the public's expectations of the future administration, naturally mentioning along the way what they plan to achieve and how. I place the emphasis on the word how because of Obama's failure to mention both his administration's goals and his plan to achieve such ends.

David E. Sanger, a writer for the New York Times, chastises Obama's speech as one which focused on "a stark repudiation of the era of George W. Bush... [and a] collective failure to make hard choices'" (Sanger). On the first I disagree; on the second, I affirm. Sure Obama spends the first section of his speech noting the failures of the Bush administration, but it was in no way his primary statement. His primary note was that of an angry father disappointed in our failure as Americans to "set aside childish things," and our "greed and irresponsibility" (Obama). The one message that resonated throughout the speech was of our failure as Americans. It was not as much our government's fault as it was our own irresponsibility to manage our own ambitions.

Obama succeeded in naming some of the important issues that face America today, but he failed to mention enough. He failed to mention how he will address them. Instead he appealed to America's collectivity and said that we will be the ones to correct the nation, we, along with our new president, can heal the nation and the world. Obama's underlying message is none other than the famous Latin motto that seals our identity, "E Pluribus Unum," or "Out of many, one". It is a call for unity, a call to work with our government and not against it. The question here, however, is not whether we can work with him, but if he can work with us. He has already singled out the new generation of Americans as being a poor representation of what America once stood for, a country that has lost its ideals and "enduring spirit," that has lost its greatness because we have failed to earn it as a people, and as a people who have fallen subject to our "individual ambitions" (Obama).

Upon reading Obama's speech I have flashbacks to a certain ill-chosen comment by his first-lady. He states, "what is now required...is a new era of responsibility...a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world" (Obama). As I read these words I look at last month's unemployment

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