Meditation on the Inauguration

When Wednesday morning, November 5th, 2008 dawned, I felt as though it was Christmas. Jorge and I and friends from the GlobalServe Community 'Motherhouse' had spent the evening before reveling in downtown Chicago, in that mass of joyful and generous-spirited people. Not since I was a young child had I felt this mixture of giddy excitement, awe, and hope.

This morning, it felt like Easter, a new dawn that holds new life. The snow blows outside but we are all here circled around the television, all work on hold for now, watching the ceremony and the inaugural speech. I am so happy, so happy.

After the election, several classmates asked me if I planned to go to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. I did not want to. Sure, there were the factors of cost and travel time; but more than that, I felt deeply that I should not go. Simply put, I didn't feel right taking a seat, or space along the parade route, or a hotel room, or a plane ticket, that should rightfully go to a Black person. For as much as this moment in history means to me, there are those who deserve more a front seat at this victory celebration.

For me, the front seat was in the room at the Iowa caucuses just over a year ago. I remember the energy in the room, the holding of breath as numbers were counted and candidates eliminated, and the amazing surprise at the end of the night--Obama would go on. I remember only six months before that, at the Clear Lake Fourth of July parade, when all the crowds came to see the Clintons, and one lone, young Black student held a sign in the parade and called out for our support. Then he was a voice in the wilderness; now there is a roar.

It is so beautiful to see all the people filling the National Mall, stretching back as far as the eye can see. It is so much like the pictures of the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is so beautiful to see the people in the streets of NYC and Chicago, and also the schoolchildren in the classrooms, all allowed to watch. Not just here in Chicago, but also in Jakarta, Indonesia, and around the world. The world has wept with us before, and today the world celebrates with us. Let us join with them now, do our neighbors no further harm, and work together towards the Beloved Community.

For me, the best part of the ceremony was the remarks made by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery (co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a friend of MLK), especially the inversion of the old color scheme; expressing the hope that now if you're Black, you don't have to "get back," and the hope that those who are white will finally do what is right. And helpful, I thought, the mention of 'when the red man, can finally get ahead, man.' It was a day not to divide among the races or religions, or to pit oppressions against each other, but to work together for the liberation of all.

There is so much more work to do, and yet today, we have come so far.

peace to you,

Le Anne

Really Mr. Obama? Rick WARREN? (An Open Letter)

Dear President-Elect Obama,

As a student at Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park, I am deeply saddened by your choice of Rick Warren as part of the Inaugural ceremony. Have you abandoned all you learned in your years in a United Church of Christ congregation?

Warren is an anti-gay pastor who was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, and who equated your pro-choice positions with the Holocaust, and gave McCain a significant boost in their appearance at the "faith forum." He may be popular, but popularity does not make right. This seems to be a cheap and tasteless political stunt on the part of the transition team. I am willing to delay my personal political agenda for the purpose of "change," but I won't stand by quietly for any politician -- even Barack Obama-- that scores political points by harming my community.

Le Anne Clausen, Director
Center for Faith and Peacemaking
Co-Founder, GlobalServe Communities
(a 45-member interfaith residential community of volunteer service in Hyde Park and Woodlawn, which welcomes and loves all our LGBTQ members)

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Yes, I know. He's just playing the game in order to unite the country. But surely he could have done better on this one. Many thanks to my dear friend Richard Lindsay, who wrote in and encouraged others to write, and provided helpful language which I have adapted and used here.

Now, if you would like to write in to the Transition Team, please visit:

http://change.gov/page/content/contact/.

peace,

Le Anne

Global Wedding Wear Musings...

So, I've made some changes, not too last-minute, though others might think so. For the most part, this planning stuff has been a nice diversion to the rest of life this past semester, and not too stressful in itself.

A dear friend in Afghanistan (and her father a tailor, who is blind) made for me while I was there a beautiful white suit, called a 'Hindustandi' in the local language (Dari, a dialect of Persian). This is because it is based on the two-piece women's dress in 'Hindustan,' or India, but is much looserto suit Afghan cultural norms. The knee-length tunic had light pinstripes, and the loose trousers were solid white. I had a white shawl to match, and I was hoping to honor her gift by using it as my wedding dress.

Unfortunately, it needs more alterations than it can handle. I must confess, as many of you know, that I have an 'American' clothing size, and an 'International' clothing size which is one smaller. I loved my CPT work because I always lost so much weight. Now, for the suit, true to Afghan practicality, it can be altered for pregnancy; but there isn't quite enough seam allowance under the arms to allow for my American graduate student 'expansion'--which is a different kind of proportion change. I really need to get out of school, and probably out of the country, to work this particular twenty off :)

But I digress. Other plans needed to be made. Were we to have gotten married in summer, I also had a white 'hippie' dress from the souk in Jerusalem, and more shawls, and some pretty beaded sandals from Baghdad. These fit fine, but they would be odd enough in January in Iowa. That isn't a deal-breaker either, but my gut isn't going that direction. Jorge does have embroidered shirts from back home that he could wear that would match these as well, though, so....I'm still considering it. And Jorge does prefer to wear a suit, anyway. The cold must be getting to him too.

There is something in me absolutely allergic to the traditional' U.S. white fluffy wedding dresses. Perhaps it is their inability to be used again, at least by the same wearer. Perhaps it is the cost. Perhaps it is the evil undergarments, and that whole industry behind it. Still, my friends have all looked beautiful and I support their right to wear whatever they choose in their weddings. But I knew I wouldn't be wearing one for our ceremony. Jorge hasn't complained, and really has no one in my family, either.

Sarah and I went off to the stores last weekend (after the maniacal mobs had passed) and let ourselves open to creativity. The result? I may actually be wearing black and white, and pants. I found a fun shirt that has little black ribbons crisscrossing it and a sash around the middle; and I have swoopy earrings Kris and Hector brought me from Mexico, and I have the black pants and shoes to go with anyway already. Now that could be fun.

Gee. Look at all this. Since when did I care about clothes? Weddings make people nuts.