Amongst the thronging crowds, the parades, the endless inaugural balls, the speeches, poems, and millions of spectators, I think the masses have forgotten something.
Something painfully poignant and obvious in the photograph. Something that we all know, yet it would seem fewer and fewer people actually believe it. The reality?
Barack Hussein Obama is a man. A speck of existance on a planet with 7 billion specks of existance. Nothing more. His power ends at the rule of law. It is quite possible there is nothing to be done for the economy. It is possible that again we will again be attacked by terrorists, and with greater force and magnitude than we have seen before. It is possible for fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes to rip the country with in every corner of it's borders. Calamity may come upon us, through no fault of our own.
Yet somehow, we have convinced ourselves that one man can save us from these things. It is eerie looking at these pictures and films of the inauguration. People gathered, singing, dancing, cheering, screaming, and erupting in joy and ecstasy. People lifting their hands and shouting. It looks like a pentecostal church service on a mass scale of political exuberance. Why? Because of one man's rise to power. No other reason.
Obama is a man, nothing more. What is unbelievable is the expectation placed upon him by the people of this country. People loved to hate President Bush for Katrina, Iraq, and many other events and decisions of the past, some of which were beyond his control. But what about the future? What if future disaster awaits? What if the economy cannot recover? What if we are attacked again? What if more hurricanes and other natural disasters ravage our cities and our people? Barack Hussein Obama cannot stand in the way of these things any more than President Bush or the other 42 presidents of our history could.
Looking at these pictures, seeing these films, hearing the songs, watching the audulation, praise, and and excitement it is not hard to see that the masses have elevated this man to something he is not and never will be. And if the events of the future tear at the illusion we have fostered, then will we understand? If hurricanes, riots, fires, wars, and soup lines are in our future than there is little Barack Hussein Obama can do to stop them.
When these things come about, who then will we turn to as our Savior?
