Ooh, neat. We're Americans.

Obama, you know, the President? He included "non-believers" in the Inauguration speech. Not that it's a big deal, but, uh, we are totally shout-out-worthy. I know. That isn't a lot. But it's a shout-out, nonetheless. It's more deliberate to verbally include people than to exclude by omission. So,



For effort.

Honorable Inauguration mention goes to Bishop Gene Robinson. His "God of our many understandings" also includes my understanding that such a hypothesis might not even be necessary. His prayer has some very good stuff:

Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

I think those are ideals even this secular humanist can be completely copacetic with. Especially that part I highlighted--"mere tolerance." To me, "tolerance" implies simply enduring the presence of, as one might endure great heat or cold or some other unpleasant thing. "Toleration" means little more than "suffering a witch to live." Something better is called for. Loving the witch. The infidel. The godless. But with that comes, I think, the reciprocal call to deny the bigot. The censor. The hypocrite. To better embrace our differences, I think we also need to call out where those differences encroach on the freedoms of others.

Also Pastor Warren predictably invoked Christianity and left out all us Atheist, Agnostic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Shinto, etc, folks who aren't Christians. But I found the kernel of agreement:

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.

Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.

We are all in this together. Me and he, and also thee. Americans, and people responsible to one another in our shared humanity. We can see the way forward with clarity in knowing our goals and doing what we have to do, even making temporary deferments of short-term goals in sight of the bigger picture, or we can muddy the waters by making our personal greed, prevent us from helping a world in need. The choice is really ours to see the better side in how we act, react, and and how we try and shape this world nearer to our heart's desire.

I'd have posted a bit more about the Inauguration, but I had something in my eye. Yeah, that was it. This regular changing of the guard we go through as a democracy, even in a time of war or ecomonic uncetainty, this smooth transition, this agreement of citizens, always amazes me; but this time, the historicity of Obama's being our first African-American president aside, I am nonetheless heartened by the sense that we have a truly capable hand on the wheel of our ship of state.

Or something like that.