The Triumph of Audacity

On Tuesday, at exactly Noon, Barak Hussein Obama was sworn in as President of the United States by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. over Abraham Lincoln’s Bible from The Library of Congress where it is securely kept. The components of this traditional ceremony were also particularly unusual.
For the first in the history of the country, its 44th president is the first undisputable mixed blood person to be elected and confirmed under oath as the nation’s Chief of State. Moreover, it is interesting to note that Obama was, like Joe Biden, one of the 22 Democratic senators who voted against the confirmation of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005.
While recognizing Judge Roberts impeccable qualifications, Obama explained his decision saying, “It is my personal estimation that he has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.” That did not interfere in Judge Roberts’s performance of his Chief Justice constitutional duty.
These high profile personalities, the new President and the Chief Justice, were both graduates – Magna Cum Laude – of Harvard Law School and were both, at a few years interval, associated with the Harvard Law Review of which Obama was elected the first black president.
Considering that the events were about the future not the past, at the Chief Justice’s invitation, President-elect Obama met with him last Wednesday in the Supreme Court’s west conference room dominated by the impressive portrait of Chief Justice William Howard Taft, the only president ever to become a Supreme Court justice. Should President Obama serve two terms, he would be only 55, can history resave an other audacity to this one time constitutional law professor?
In the meantime, Obama ascendance to the presidency of the United Sates is causing an Obamania worldwide. In industrialized countries like France as in developing countries like Haiti were, we learn, Obama groups are formed by various young Haitians. It is an opportunity for school teachers and university professors to elaborate for their students on the remarkable 25-year journey of Obama and stress the motivation, the service dedication, the vision, the organization ability, the determination and the perseverance that among enduring qualities characterize the 44th president of the United States.
In his message he reaffirmed those who dream a better tomorrow that “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”
His words transcended the boundaries of the United States to reach people from many other countries when he said: “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
“To the people of poor nations”, President Obama said, “we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
Here is the time for responsible Haitian leaders to take advantage of the youth’s enthusiasm and to become audacious in preparing proper elaborate plans that define their vision of a durable better tomorrow..