Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall

Now that I have time I can write about Obama's Second Inaugural.

First, there was a little difficulty. I don't watch much TV (only Rose Bowl Parade and this so far this year). My cable TV company has required I install a box between the cable and my TV (a 1982 vintage). Thankfully, they provided the box for free. But since it gets so little use I don't want it to be an electronic vampire, sucking electricity when I'm not actually using it, so I unplugged it. But the blasted thing has no persistent memory and must be reinitialized by the company over the cable every time it is plugged in. So I had to call them to do that. I asked if I would have to do that every time my home lost power. Yup. I told him how annoying that was. But on to better things.

The more I listened to Obama's speech the more impressed I was. I really like what he said. I was delighted with his mention of Stonewall and even more so when he forcefully declared marriage equality is important. My delight didn't end there. A lot of what he said, on all sorts of topics, was music to my ears. I am so glad he had such a strong overall defense of progressivism.

I paid attention when Obama reeled off "Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall." I'm very aware of the Stonewall Riots that got the gay rights movement going. I'm also familiar with the role Selma played in civil rights. But I had to look up Seneca Falls. That was a convention back in 1848 and is considered the start of the women's rights movement that eventually included allowing women to vote.

Naturally, anti-gay groups are now trying to reinterpret Stonewall. They've done a lot of reinterpreting history, not just gay history. Our side is, of course, delighted that our seminal moment in rights has been linked by the president to the other big rights movements.

Delaying my comments a few days allows me to include the commentary that has appeared. Many of them can praise the speech better than I can.

I'll start with one delightful feature of the speech -- it ticked off the GOP. They were looking for more of Obama's 2004 Dem Convention speech when he talked about no Red states, no Blue states, only United States. In other words, they were looking for Obama to say how much he would compromise with them. Not in this speech.

Adele Stan of AlterNet lists the dozen ways this speech ticked off the Tea Party and the Right in general. I won't list them all, but they include: reclaiming the Declaration of Independence and Constitution for liberalism, saying we built this country as a community instead of as a bunch of individuals, refuting the idea that the economy does best without business regulations, called for action on climate change, gave a hug to Hispanics (with his selection of poet and benediction speaker), made a patriotic case for the social safety net (and swatted away the idea of "takers"), asserted the morality of gay rights, called for equal pay for women, and highlighted voter suppression. Quite a list!

Of course, lots of gay blogs are praising Obama's inclusion of us -- first time gays are mentioned in an Inaugural speech! Though some are a bit miffed that transgenders weren't explicitly mentioned.

Others, such as Rachel Maddow and Frank Rich (9 minute video), note a big reason for Obama to mention marriage equality -- he was standing right in front of the members of the Supreme Court. And they are working on a couple gay marriage cases. Making an historical link between gay rights and women's rights and civil rights is being seen as offering the Supremes a reason to be on the right side of history on our issues. That might sway John Roberts.

There was one disappointment to the day. The networks stopped broadcasting before the parade started.