Awesome

[marydell]

Closing prayer guy: "If you're black, you don't have to get back; if you're brown, stick around; if you're yellow, you can be mellow; if you're white, do right." 

(Not an exact quote, I'll fix it up once google catches up with things and I can get his name and a proper transcript.)

Reverend Joseph Lowery:  ""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"

[CNN has this quote as "black will not ask to give back" but I'm certain it's "get back" because he's referencing a song, I think called "Black, Brown & White."]

Also, the poet lady invoked pagan law (first do no harm) [darn, not really; see comments.] and (probably unintentionally) My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs (spiny/smooth).  

Watched the inauguration in the break room with my teammates at work. Our guy is leading us now. It's a good day.

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

It was AWESOME.

Also, in other news, SCIENCE!

[aedifica]

You missed "if you're a red man, you can get ahead, man." I believe the speaker was Joseph Lowery.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Right you are, oopsie! I found a mostly-correct transcript of that bit and updated my entry.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I loved loved LOVED the way Lowery updated Isaiah with "tanks into tractors" and the gender-inclusive language for "vine and fig tree." That helped a LOT.

Even if he did sound a little bit like "mawwidge" or the man from Pepperland.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I caught that tanks & tractors thing too, but missed the vine/fig tree thing. I'm looking forward to a full transcript.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

It did sound like "give back" but we can blame that on the sound engineers.

"Pagan" in this sense meaning classical Greek, right? Because "first do no harm" is the Hippocratic Oath, although it's so very related to the Wiccan Rede (an it harm none, do as you will).

[marydell.livejournal.com]

D'Oh, you're right, it is the hippocratic oath! I thought it was a form of the Wiccan Rede because 1. I am dumb 2. it sounded very familiar (see #1) and 3. it was used in sequence with the Golden Rule, so there was a nice christian/pagan contrast. So I guess that was me hearing that rather than it really being in the text.

The dinosaurs thing, however, I stand by.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

That's okay. I've been calling Lowery's "tanks into tractors" an updating of Isaiah, when, since he followed it up with the "vine and fig tree" verse, he was actually using the version from Micah, although the "swords into plowshares" is in both. And that "justice shall roll down like waters" is from Amos. I've been Googling because my Bible-fu is weak.

But I got a transcript, anyway! Here! http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/01/rev_lowery_inauguration_benedi.html

Now I'm just playing lit-crit with it because I LIKE it.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Your bible-fu is stronger than mine, since the vine & fig tree thing is something I don't recognize. I did get the tanks/tractors/swords/plowshares thing tho.

*off to look at the transcript*

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I blush to admit that I wouldn't have known it if it weren't for Heinlein's love of the passage. That's what he wanted to title "If This Goes On--" originally.

And "saints who from their labors rest" is from a hymn (the phrase sounded enough like a quote for me to google it) and while "justice roll down like water" is Micah Amos, it's most familiar because MLK ALSO quoted it in the 1963 Civil Rights March speech, and "do justice and love mercy" is also Micah.

Googling anything that has that Shakespearean cadence is a REALLY GOOD BET to nail the Bible quotes, I've found.

[aedifica]

Thanks for finding the transcript!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Oh, my pleasure! I'm not much of a believer, but that was such good oratory, in addition to my agreement with the sentiments expressed, that I wanted to see it as soon as I could.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was looking for that earlier, but I could not find it.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Um...except it's "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!" Sorry. *squeek*

(You probably just forgot the first Oh, as opposed to switched the two words all through, yes?)

[marydell.livejournal.com]

My brain constantly excises the first Oh, because it has decided the key phrase is "my oh my!" instead of "oh my!"

So I read it this way too, even though the correct title is right in front of me, and even though I keep trying not to.

Are you the one who turned me onto Boynton's books? They are SO awesome. We have 4 of them in regular circulation and Charlie has a clear preference for them over other books (in that he actually pays attention when we read them).

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

"Are you the one who turned me onto Boynton's books?"

Maybe? That's the only one we have right now, though it's a big fave.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Hippos Go Berserk is awesome beyond description.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think the best one is Blue Hat, Green Hat. Oops!

We also like "But Not The Hippopotamus," and I have a wonderful story about "The Going To Bed Book." When my kid was about two, I finished reading it with the last line, "It's quiet now. What do you say?" And she piped up with "Thank you!"

Heh. We trained her!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I don't have Blue Hat, Green Hat yet - we have 4 of them, including But Not The Hippopotamus and Barnyard Dance as well as the ones I mention up above. I like Barnyard Dance except it tends to force one to bounce the baby on one's knee, and if this follows the bedtime bottle, one can get barfed upon.

Eventually I'll get more of them, once he's old enough to know one book from another. He definitely prefers the Boynton books to other books, but doesn't distinguish among them.

[geekosaur]

I think, given the context, it's quite reasonable to assume it was a modified Wiccan Rede (possibly to avoid some people's heads exploding); it was about religion, not science or medicine. And I'm willing to bet a lot of folks took it precisely that way.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

'First of all do no harm' is part of the Hippocratic Oath.

Michelle Malkin is accusing Lowery of 'glib racialism' for that prayer.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Because she's an advocate of serious and entrenched "racialism," I suppose.

WTF is "racialism," anyway?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Racialism is racism with a smirk attached.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Fun racism!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Racism with bad science in tow.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

Just the idea of that hurts my head.

[real-gone-girl.livejournal.com]

"racialism" is what you call anti-racism, when you're trying to make it sound like racism.