BARACK OBAMA NEEDS TO SAY:

BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL SPEECH
January 20, 2009

President Bush, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration and I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that I will speak the truth, the whole truth frankly and boldly. We shall not shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country and in the world today.

We are a nation divided. Nearly one half the voters chose another person as President. They would have a President who continued acts of preventive war, torture, rendition, wire tapping, and secret arrest that violate the Constitution and the ideals of this great nation that we wish to live in. Our religious traditions compel that we recognize that those people who disagree with us are also children of God and equal in the eyes of God with us. So like Lincoln, we embrace our adversaries offering malice toward none, and charity for all. We believe that they acted sincerely although mistakenly, based upon fears that we all share.

This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will sustainably prosper.

This is no time for partisanship or polarization. It is a time for us to unite and to solve the critical problems that lie just ahead.

The truth is that we all face not one but three coinciding major crises that affect us along with every one else on this planet. The three crises are: Global Warming, Peak Oil, and Global Financial Meltdown. Any one of these crises could cause an end to civilization and democracy. Each has a triggering effect on the other two. These three crises present us with a challenge of whether or not we have evolved enough, and whether we are wise enough to deal with them. We must deal with them even though we are engaged in painful and expensive wars abroad.

I am firmly convinced that we as a people and our democratic institutions can face and deal with these problems creatively and constructively. It will require the very best that is in us. We shall have to accept new thoughts. We shall all have to participate in some form of national service. We shall have to apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. We shall have to deal with truth and reality and not fantasy. Some may have to sacrifice. Some may have to pay more taxes than they would like. We must build on the instinct “not to foul our nest,” that we all share regarding our fragile planet home. We must discuss and debate the solutions, but we must then quickly decide and we must quickly act.

Some immediate action to unleash our creative spirits and energies is imperative:

• We must effectively eradicate the tyranny of money power that now weakens our democracy of, by, and for the people with campaign contributions and lobbying.

• We must abolish the Senate’s selfish unconstitutional parliamentary device, Senate Rule XXII that allows a minority of Senators to thwart majority will, commonly known as the filibuster. The Senate, like the House of Representatives shall conduct its business as the Constitution compels and Thomas Jefferson dictated in the first Senate Rules, by rule of a simple majority

• We must establish open and unbiased communication media among us so that each of us can be fully informed voting citizens to make the decisions that are now compelled by events

If we do not eradicate each of these impediments to a government of majority rule of, by, and for the people, we shall remain immobilized and we shall remain polarized.

Like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, must deal with our own fear. Some of our fear is a justifiable reaction to actual events, and some of our fear has been intentionally implanted. We must as a people decide which of our fears are real, and what their causes are. We must then make calm wise choices about how to deal with our fear. Much of our fear has been intentionally created and augmented by the lies surrounding 9/11 and the lies that lead to our Wars, and the jingoism and patriotism that accompany Wars when our sons and daughters are in harms way. We shall have to unravel all of those lies and deal at long last with truth and reality, as we struggle together to bring all of our troops safely home.

For the past many years, we have allowed our fear to blind us to the real causes and motivations of our enemies. We have shot from the hip without thinking, without planning and without real thought. We have reacted from the most primitive of our own reactions. We have not used our analytical processes and our wisdom in dealing either with our enemies or the fear that we have of our enemies.

This unthinking primitive reaction to our enemies has lead us into disaster. It has not made us safer. It has in no way lessened the power of our enemies. We have learned that military might is ineffective against insurgencies. We have learned that use of military power against insurgencies leads to the destruction of self governing democracy here at home. The enemies of democracy here at home as well as the enemies abroad are now vastly more powerful than they were prior to 9/11, despite our military might.

I shall lead this nation in a new approach that is not based solely on our military might, but makes use also of the wisdom of mankind based on faith, hope, and charity, and the Golden Rule. We as a people must try doing to others as we would have them do to us. We must re-establish a good neighbor policy with other peoples and other nations, rather than a policy that seeks domination, exploitation and control of other peoples and their resources. We shall care for each other here at home and we shall care for others abroad. We shall encourage them to care for us and we shall strive to deserve that caring.

I shall seek out our enemies. I shall talk to them. I shall ask them “What is wrong? Why are you angry? What can we do that would make it better for you?” What sort of help would you like from us?”

I shall use our national wealth and our power as generously as we can, to rebuild, to repair, and to restore economies and standards of peoples living elsewhere on this planet. I believe in the wisdom that I conquer my enemy when I make him my friend.
I believe that we are each created in the image of God and equally loved by God. We are in fact interdependent upon each other. As a nation, I propose that we seek to make friends rather than seeking to create enemies.

Some in official power in the recent past are suspected of committing war crimes, treason, crimes of obstruction of justice, perjury and other high crimes and misdemeanors. These suspected wrongdoers are children of God, but like criminals everywhere, they must be brought to Justice. We must judge them on the basis of their unconstitutional acts and we must hold them accountable in the eyes of the law. I shall create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission where those we charge with obstruction of justice, perjury, and high crimes and misdemeanors may publicly purge themselves, and enlighten us all as to needed reforms, policies and laws, and thereby become eligible for a pardon. Those who refuse to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation process must face prosecution before US Courts and Courts Abroad. I shall allow no claim of immunity on behalf of such wrongdoers.

I do hereby order all persons within my authority as President and as Commander in Chief including the CIA, the FBI, the Homeland Security Agency, and all intelligence agencies to safeguard, maintain, and make immediately available to the public all information and evidence concerning 9/11, the plane crashes, and the destruction of the World Trade Center.

I do hereby make an Executive Order repealing each Executive Order that purports to legitimize wire tapping, torture, rendition, secret arrest, and secret detention. I have no problem defining “torture.” It is any oppressive acts toward captured personnel that we would oppose and reject if applied by our enemies to our own captured sons and daughters.

I hereby make an order restoring the Writ of Habeas Corpus to its full standing under our Constitution, so that the legality of any arrest and any detention by U.S. personnel of a human being anywhere can be heard and decided in our federal courts.

For those who have lost their jobs, who are at risk of losing their jobs, for those who are working at jobs beneath their creative potential, hear this:

We honor and we shall maintain an active government, a government that cares for all of us, a government that will protect us from the greed of economic royalists, and maintain equal opportunity for all. We shall maintain a government of, by, and for the people with equal justice and caring for all.

In this dedication of our nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May God protect each and every one of us. May God guide us in the days to come.