#942 Obamanable

I was torn the other day when I watched the inauguration on streaming computer video. It was during the prayers.
Let me say first off that the term Obama Nation is being embraced by our young. It’s kind of like a play on Fast Food Nation or The Wired Nation of one of those things. A phrase denoting a vast change and a nation committed to a new beginning, symbolized by one figure of hope. Obama Nation.
It sounds so resounding, and yet somehow familiar. And it’s the familiar sounding way that Obama’s detractors are using. Some of them from the religious right. They use the term because it sound likes abomination. As in, an abomination before the Lord. As in, cast it out!
To them the Abomination Obama-Nation semi-homonym is a rallying cry for a different kind of change. A change in administrations.
This inspiration occurred to me while I was watching the inauguration invocation of Pastor Rick Warren. I was feeling mildly blasphemous because I was watching him deliver the prayer. I wanted to see what he said because I was on the phone, on hold, waiting for a customer. So I was watching the closed captioning of the prayer.
My Baptist upbringing reared its fiery brimstoned head. “Abomination!” it cried, “Bow your head and close your eyes when someone is praying.” But if I closed my eyes I wouldn’t be able to see the prayer. And since I couldn’t hear it, how would I know when it was over?
I’m not sure what the Bible says about closed captioning. I know it’s not strong on public praying to begin with, admonishing folks to pry privately in a closet. So maybe my streaming trespass will be forgiven.
And maybe the pastor reading what should be a spontaneous from-the-heart prayer from notes or a teleprompter is in the abomination category anyhow.
Speaking of TV, at least Obama acted quickly to halt some change—the changeover to digital TV. A lot of older Americans weren’t ready for the switch from analogue to digital. So Obama holding off the deadline means their TVs won’t have just a bunch of static on their screens.
And that means, dare I say it?
No Obamanable snow, man.
America, ya gotta love it.