Red State People - You Can Come On Out of your Bomb Shelters ... Again.

I was a little over nine years ago now... so far back that many of you may have forgotten it - but there was a disturbingly large segment of the population that believed that world was at genuine risk of coming to an end as the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999. These people bought up dry stores, bottled water, and built out nuclear bomb shelters in preparation - sneering and laughing at those of us who were cavalierly preparing to ring in the new year with formal wear, champagne and an eerily robotic looking Dick Clark. It's hard to forget the obvious shame and embarrassment that they wore all over their faces as they poked their heads out of the aforementioned shelters like Punksawtawney Phil (yes, that's how it's spelled... I looked it up!) only dumber... and with opposable thumbs that they hardly seemed worthy of any longer.

I'm happy to welcome those same red-state folks back into the sunlight, as the general doom and gloom, multiple assassination attempts, stock market crash, civil war and other assorted harbingers of the Apocalypse that were to accompany the start of the Obama Presidency, failed to materialize.

Seriously folks, get a grip... come on out and smell the democracy.

First off, if you don't know - I'm a Republican. Yep, that's right - been registered that way since I was 18. Second, I voted for Obama. Yep, that's right, too. I won't get into it here... mostly because I'm tired of explaining to people who don't really want to listen, and because I wrote about it six months ago (Switching Sides of the Aisle:My Secret Shame as Navy Republican). But, don't worry, I haven't lost my access to right wing propoganda - because my family sends it to me via forwarded e-mails pretty much every day. You see, the fear campaign, as ludicrous as it appeared, that was conducted by the GOP in the waning months of the election was actually successful in scaring the majority of people who live outside big cities and nowhere near an ocean.

The once maligned Y2K crowd was headed back into their newly-stocked shelters to avoid the pestilence and strife that was to accompany today's inauguration.

But then President Obama took his oath, everyone cheered, and the world went on.

And his speech was epic.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/01/20/obama.inauguration.speech.cnn

There's nothing I can say that he didn't say better than I could. Our generation has it's "I have a dream..." speech. And while I may not believe in all the same things that the new President does - I'm proud of what he did today. Of course, it wasn't all hearts and flowers on inauguration day - the folks in attendance did their best to try and strip the event of any class and dignity by actually boo-ing the outgoing President.

Honestly people, it's not a football game or a WWE wrestling match, put your home-made signs down. It is, in fact, the peaceful transfer of power - one of the most awe-inspiring and original things about our great nation. In the midst of my appreciation and enjoyment, I was deeply ashamed of being associated with the gathered masses as an Obama supporter. Because whatever message or moral they could possibly take from today's events, was lost on them.

This wasn't good defeating evil: it was hope over malaise; youth over the establishment; and action over apathy... although to be perfectly honest, in the case of the transfer of the Vice Presidency, it actually is good over evil. (Seriously, is Dick Cheney the only person besides Hannibal Lecter who is actually more scary in a wheelchair?!)

I'm sure there will be e-mails forwarded to me shortly from loved ones, decrying the secret Communist messages in today's inaugural address, and shedding light on the budding conspiracies that will no doubt characterize this terrifying new regime. But for now, I'm looking forward to four years of hearing my Commander in Chief speak without cringing, a little bit of hope, and a whole new excuse to point and laugh at people begrudingly coming up out of their reinforced basements wondering just what in the hell they're going to do with a hundred pounds of uncooked rice.