President Obama's Call for Personal Responsibility

BY KAREN OCAMB

First there were goosebumps and tears: Finally a person of color had reached the zenith of political power in America. And what made the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United State even sweeter was that it came the day after the nation recognized the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

As the lily white state of Iowa proved in voting for Obama to be the nation’s first black president—the time has come for a person to be judged by the “content of their character” rather than crooked and cruel stereotypes scraped from the dustbin of history. Whites, Obama told PBS commentator Tavis Smiley in 2004, want justice, too.

But perhaps the more iconic, spine-tingling moment for many Americans was the picture of Obama and his wife Michelle confidently striding down the majestic steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a concert in their honor—roughly 147 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order freeing the slaves, which had included Michelle Obama’s ancestors. Produced by HBO, the concert included a clip of King’s famous “I Have A Dream Speech” uttered on those same steps Aug. 28, 1963 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Pictures matter and the symmetry was breathtaking, as if Lincoln’s call to the “better angels of our nature” had fulfilled MLK’s “dream” in Obama’s election. The connection to “something greater than ourselves” was not only symbolic but real and palpable.

And yet a darker reality remains: Obama and his family listened to the concert and Obama delivered his First Inaugural Address to 1.8 million people on the Mall from behind bulletproof glass.

Obama’s address was replete with references to Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Delano Roosevelt who became president as the country slipped into the Great Depression. Obama spoke to the current “nagging fear” of America's inevitable decline.

“Every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms,” Obama said. “At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents…

“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…

“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.”

Obama called for an ethic of service. “Those values upon which our success depends—hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world…”

The ground has shifted, Obama said, “the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.” Rather the ideals upon which America was founded—not the calculations that lead to Abu Ghraib—should serve as a guide. “Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.”

And yet a dark reality remains here, too. While many LGBT Americans wept at Obama’s inauguration, there is the nagging fear that gay people do not figure in his historic plans.

That fear is rooted in reality. Despite his lofty commitment to constitutional ideals, Obama forsook his 1996 support for full marriage equality in favor of a more strategic and politically expedient position supporting civil unions, the Windy City Times reported, with backup documentation. During a campaign appearance at evangelical pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, Obama—whose parent’s interracial marriage was once illegal—said same-sex marriage was “different” because “God is in the mix.” Warren has compared same-sex marriage to incest, polygamy and bestiality.

LGBT people were also tremendously disappointed that—despite tons of resumes vetted through a well-organized Presidential Appointment Project—Obama failed to find one LGBT American qualified enough to serve in his Cabinet—though every other demographic appears to be represented.

Obama invited a lesbian couple to ride the train into Washington D.C. with him—though no photos were released of them together. He failed to include gays during his kick-off remarks in Philadelphia, though “gays and straights” were included after that.

Bishop Gene Robinson’s prayer to open the inaugural ceremonies at the concert at the Lincoln Memorial was not broadcast by HBO—later explained as an “error” and “miscommunication.” Given the uproar over Obama’s selection of Warren to deliver the Inaugural Invocation—which Robinson’s last minute prayer was supposed to mollify— the reaction to the “error” from the near-flawless Obama team was incredulity.

Also painful was the Benediction by pro-gay civil rights hero the Rev. Joseph Lowery who called for the day “when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream” but left LGBT people out of his prayer.

“Lord,” he prayed, “in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.”

At least Obama waved at the Lesbian and Gay Bands of America during the parade—though their appearance was only broadcast on C-Span.

What to do in the face of such ignominy?

It is instructive to remember that Lincoln may have believed that slaves should be freed—but he had to be pushed to sign the Emancipation Proclamation by black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1863. It took two more years to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which originally viewed slaves as “three-fifths of a person.” And while President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy might have agreed black Americans should have the unobstructed right to vote, it took Martin Luther King Jr., gay Bayard Rustin and a band of civil rights organizations pushing President Lyndon Johnson to actually sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The LGBT movement for equal rights does not have a Fredrick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr. Therefore it falls on each LGBT American to step up, to assume that personal responsibility Obama calls for, to band together in these difficult times to help each other and other communities in need—coalition building that can only strengthen the movement, and by extension, America.

And it is also imperative to push Obama to deliver on that “God-given promise” of equality and his own civil rights pledges (now posted on whitehouse.gov). The cries of second-class LGBT citizens are not petty grievances but demands for equal rights and justice under the law. LGBT Americans are We the People, too.