If you are interested in a transcript of Barack Obama’s inaugural speech, as it was actually given, you can get a copy at Project Gutenberg. It is Project Gutenberg eBook number 28000.  You should also be able to get these files at the PG Preprint Reading Room.

As the last two posts here indicate, the hard work of our forebears is hot on my mind. When Barack Obama conveyed those very same feelings in his inaugural speech, so succinctly and appropriately, the tears I was holding back poured out.

… It has not been the path for the faint hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame, rather it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things, some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and travelled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops, and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip, and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought, and died, in places like Concord, and Gettysburg, Normandy, and Khe Sanh. Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed until their hands were raw, so that we might live a better life.

Like many, I am cautiously optimistic about what Barack Obama will actually do now that he is president.  But right now, I just want to dance and celebrate the fact that, FINALLY AT LONG LAST, a candidate I voted for is President of the USA.  Go America!

Hurricane season is over, apparently the Saints’ season is over because they’re not going to the playoffs barring a miracle, the Packers are not going to the playoffs but we don’t call our season over, Talk Like A Yooper Day is over, and my renewed relationship with good health is over.  Hack, cough, etc.

Ya der hey, it must be December.

In the late 1990s, I cut all ties with the Republican and Libertarian parties citing irreconcilable differences in party direction.  When I permanently moved here in 1991, I naively thought all you had to be was the hardest-working, best possible you and the nation would filter you upwards and, for a short time until you could get back on your feet, catch you when you fell down.  A brown-skinned, gun-rights-respecting, libertarian-Republican and female punk of a science-tech geek with an ACLU bumper sticker and gay friends was not frowned upon in those days by members of the party.  Sure, the blue-haired old ladies at the Republican primaries and local party meetings thought me strange, but treated me as one of their own when I opened my mouth and discussed policy with them.  No one spoke of abortion and homosexuals or labeled whole populations of people as “godless,” “towelheads,” or “baby killers” back then.

By 2000, “as the party got into bed with evangelicals who believed in the Constitution second, the Bible first (their religious leaders interpretation of the Bible anyway)” and Republican-Libertarian issues were warped into a very post-modern and dissonant mixture of fiscal self-centeredness and anti-intellectual “family values,” it was time for goodbye.  The natural culmination of everything that ensued since then – W as president, 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, anti-Muslim sentiment, media frenzy, post-Katrina bungling, ideology over dialogue, soundbites trouncing critical thinking, the downward spiral of the economy – occurred for me last week when a young, educated lawyer openly asked me if I was voting for the terrorist.  He meant Barack Hussein Obama and he wasn’t joking.  That right there is what’s been wrong with this country for the past decade.

Fixing it is what I hope president-elect Obama means when he asks us to “join in the work of remaking this nation.”  There are broken, hate-filled people in America. But, I believe that there are a lot more good and decent people who form the bedrock of this nation. It is my hope that the election of Barack Obama provides us with an opportunity to look away from the dark side and interact with each other knowing that difference of opinion can be met with respect and peace.

Higher education is a hard entity to assess given the variables. What you want to be when you grow up determines going on to graduate school versus stopping with a bachelor’s degree. Lesser-known and smaller schools excel at undergraduate teaching, while larger research institutions offer better graduate training and degrees of pedigree. Whether your parents or you have money factors, and the number and value of scholarships makes the difference among Ivy League, private liberal arts school, the flagship campus of the state university, a satellite campus, and community college.

For me, the most important factors are what you want to study, who can impart that knowledge to you the best, and the opportunities which you can then create from higher education.