There have been a number of inaugurations since I arrived on this planet. The first one just three months after I first saw the light of day. Some guy named Harry S. Truman. Can’t say I have much personal knowledge about Harry. My concerns were more in the nature of dry diapers and warm milk.

I had shed the diapers and switched to cold milk with liberal doses of Bosco by the time the next inauguration rolled around. Dwight D. Eisenhower, World War II hero. Can’t say I remember much about that one or when he did it again four years later.

Ditto John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, though I do remember the whole Kennedy/Nixon thing. Between American History (repeated ad nauseum semester after bloody semester as I remember), Social Studies and Civics, we all but had Kennedy and Nixon shoveled down our throats. I had no clue there was some kind of controversy involving Kennedy. Religion not being even a remote consideration for me, then or now, I can’t say I was sure what being a Catholic meant or why it would be a big deal and hell, he looked old to me. I do remember thinking Nixon looked like a swarthy little crook (how prophetic) but, when they broke out the paper ballots at school, that didn’t keep me from voting for him. Word around the playground had it that Kennedy planned on extending the school day and, oh my, eliminate summer vacation so Nixon it was. I mean, a guy’s got to have his priorities straight, right?

LBJ came and went and I missed his little speech. Richard Nixon pontificated at his first and I was probably too busy getting high and/or throwing rocks at some anti-war demonstration to tune in. The only time I ever got involved in politics that didn’t include discussing the overthrow of the government or trashing things was during Eugene J. McCarthy’s run. When he fell on his face, I jumped ship to George McGovern. I can remember canvassing around Warren Michigan, a rough place to find supporters for either McCarthy or McGovern. Watergate was in full swing and you just knew Nixon was going to skate. That and the day I walked up to a house to push McGovern and there was a huge poster hanging on the wall showing George Wallace sitting in Jesus’ lap pretty much became the straws that broke my brief political back. I went back to organizing protest marches, hanging with the SDS and the Weathemen and trying to figure out who amongst us were FBI plants.

Here’s a hint on that last: it was always the guys who advocated the most violent approach and claimed they could get the guns and explosives to do the job. Those guys you moved away from on the Group W bench.

Needless to say I skipped Nixon’s second inaugural address.

Watergate finally took Nixon down. Too little too late. I’m sure Gerald Ford had something to say at his inauguration but I was way beyond caring much for whatever lies politicians seem always to express. I skipped Jimmy Carter’s words as well though with him there was a least a ray of light. Unfortunately, the dark cloud of Ronald Reagan eclipsed that pretty quickly. I ignored Reagan as best I could, twice, and the first George Bush that followed him. Bill Clinton turned out to be 60/40 though I’m not sure which side of the equation was good and which bad. I was probably too busy pounding code to pay much attention to either of his inaugural speeches.

George W. Bush? Please. He hasn’t been gone long enough for me to even want to go there. Suffice it to say that as I never recognize him as a legitimate president, I ignored both of his inaugural addresses.

Today, however, I pulled over to the side of the road and listened to all 19 or so minutes of Barack Obama’s inaugural address. I have to admit that I never thought I would live to see a black man elected president. Indeed, a black man and a woman running for the same job at the same time. Amazing.

Do I think Mr. Obama will be the bright light of Camelot that so many seem to think he will be? I fear I’ve grown a hard, heat-tempered shell of mistrust over the years, especially where politics and politicians are concerned, so I can’t say I do.

But hope is a pesky thing, a mosquito buzzing in the night. Only time will tell if he moves to turn America around, away from the rocks she is surely steering toward, or if he turns out to be just another mouth full of lies.

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