Read between the lines

We can all agree that when it comes to political speeches we have to learn to read between the lines. Although the day after the inauguration President Obama made the promise to make the White House and what goes on within our government more transparent, his inaugural speech still needs to be deciphered.
Lets start from the beginning and work our way through a speech that I found to be quite compelling. President Obama begins by talking about taking the oath “amidst gathering clouds and raging storms,” and then goes into the plights that face our great nation, war, economics, health care, and our failing school system. What was really being said was, “I just want to say thank you for handing me such a long laundry list of things to do and I only have four years to clean it up or I loose my job, too.” He followed this with a CYB (cover your butt) statement that these indicators of crisis are “subject to data and statistics.” Real meaning – “If you turn the paper upside down it doesn’t look so bad.”
Of course there has to be the lines about God given rights of equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Does this mean that we finally have a government that supports Gay Rights? I don’t know. The translation for that is far to advance for a mere college journalist. But fear not American people and UNK students alike, because those of us that are non-believers have already come to terms with the fact that we don’t get God given rights. At least we are counted among the strengths of the patchwork heritage that is America.
Moving on, President Obama also spent some time talking about how America is great because we worked hard and earned it, that we as a nation do not take shortcuts or settle for less, and that our path is not one “…for those who prefer leisure over work.” Oh yeah, he did it all right; he took a stab at President Bush. For the record Bush spent on average 63 days per year on vacation. I don’t know anyone who gets that much time off of work.
That was not the only spear of words that hits home to the old administration either. Obama-speak, “power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.” What it really means, “Just because we can go to war with out the sanction of the UN does not mean that we should.”
We have come to a time in the history of our nation when an inaugural address has to include the dreaded T word, terror. Unfortunately there was nothing new said on the topic but the words that are repeated need to be remembered, that the American sprite cannot be broken by terror.
I enjoy picking apart speeches and reading between the lines but that does not change the fact that many great things where said in Obama’s inaugural speech and grand pledges were made. I believe that everything he said can be done, not because I believe in him, but because I do believe in the American people and what we can accomplish when we work together.