Web Letters: An Inauguration for the Ages

Just like the culture at large, the arts in our country are being re-energized by our recent encounter with pivotal history--in this case, a kind of quantification of individuals who have taken upon themselves to make the promise of American liberty and justice a living and breathing reality.

This exercise will always be somewhat arbitrary, with questions arising about who should and should not be included in such a pantheon, yet that very arbitrariness is at the heart of that American promise: our different points of view bring the strength and energy of diversity to our enterprise and result in our defining our national character. Yes to Abraham, Martin, John; yes to Malcolm and Bobby and Chief Joseph, and yes to Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson and Harvey Milk--each of them stood up and did something that mattered, actions which have given us reminders of who we can be.

African American Heritage month has just come and gone, and there are stirrings out there that our culture is poised for a rebirth that focuses on some of the deeper hopes within our democracy. For instance, I recently came across an astonishing piece of folk art online from The Old Soul Doll Company that takes the image of Uncle Sam into the twenty-first century. He's black. There was a time that such an image would have been considered racist--and now I'm wondering why? After all, why should Uncle Sam be white?

The planets are being rearranged, and aren't we lucky to be along for the ride?

Russell Alexander-Orozco

Los Angeles, CA

I love this cover! Is it for sale in poster format?

Eva Baham

Slidell, LA

No Native Americans depicted and I guess Bobby Kennedy doesn't rate either. Still, overall, a nice illustration but very exclusive.

Beverly McCartt

Orlando, FL

As soon as I saw the cover for the Inaugural Issue last week, I felt so humbly grateful to be alive in our time, proud to be a Nation reader and, excited to have been an Obama supporter. However, I quickly foresaw the editorial letters on omissions and inclusions. I could not even think of who might be "missing" from your 2/2/09 cover, but I knew that fingers and keyboards and pens were frantically moving to express surprise, disappointment, shock and maybe even confusion (or condescension) as to why certain historical figures were present and why others were not even given a nod at this crucial time in history... Please, Nation readers, just enjoy these precious moments for a little while. Please remember to open those "fists of fury" that have been (like mine) so balled up with anger and despair for so long, I forgot what it feels like to simply enjoy hearing what my president has to say. And just as our new president is merely one man, so, too, is the talented artist who created this moving tribute to many. If you are left wanting more, wanting something different, then create your own. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Now is the time to take action and stop complaining. Do not fear to ask for help. I am, once again, proud to be an American.

Colleen Boris

New York, NY

Like those of you who know anything about history, I am befuddled not so much by the glaring omissions but by the glaring inclusions.

I would definately delete Marcus Garvey. And I can't believe Harvey Milk is in there and not Nat Turner, Ralph Bunche and/or Robert F. Williams! Would you really have included Milk ten or even five years ago?

LBJ is a gray choice--a very grey choice which is understandable but unpleasant. And I also do not understand the exclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young or Stokely Carmichael.

John Molina

Chula Vista, CA

Very nicely done. But not a single nod (unless I missed it, in which case I certainly apologize and promise to work on my reading comprehension) to acknowledge the existence of the Black Panthers? That's... staggering.

Dan Bailey

Montgomery, AL

The inauguration cover... damn, it made me cry. The four little girls in the front, Emmet Till... The history, the power of remembering... a very powerful piece of commemorative art. Excellent. Will it be available as a print? Reminds me that the ancestors laid a responsibility on us and they are watching.

Paul Rigmaiden

Modesto, CA

Your inaugural cover, featuring President Barack Obama surrounded by central figures in the struggle for racial justice and equality, was inspiring. However, it contained at least one notable and unfortunate omission. Absent from the assemblage was Charles Hamilton Houston, the late Dean of Howard Law School, attorney for the NAACP, mentor of Justice Thurgood Marshall and architect of the legal strategy that eventually brought down the segregationist legal regime of Jim Crow.

Houston's personal history is especially relevant to President Obama's story. Within one generation following the abolition of slavery, Houston graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and served as editor of the Harvard Law Review. Obama followed that same path half a century later.

Houston continues to inspire generations of lawyers to use the law as an instrument of moral justice and equality. His work continues at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, under the guidance of Professor Charles Ogletree, a prominent Obama supporter.

Without Houston and the men and women he taught and inspired, President Obama's historic inauguration likely could not have been possible. Wherever he is, Dean Houston deserves a front row seat.

Sean McDonnell

Chicago, IL

I have to say I think it is a great thing to see a black man elected president of the United States, but let us not get carried away here. Racism is far from over and equality in this country has still not been reached.

On New Year's Day, a young African-American was executed by a white BART cop. This is far from a racially free country.

And the comparison of MLK is not legitimate. King was against war and he was against the black man joining up in the white man's army to go fight a foreign enemy with whom the black man (or the white man soldier, for that matter) has no problems to begin with. And if you ask Malcolm X if this were equality, I think he would chuckle at this and then say something to the effect of "just because they give you a bone, do not think they have accepted you into their lives."

Again, this is a great stepping stone, for all people of color and ethnicity, including the white man.

Unfortunately Obama seems to draw on the blood of war and tough talk, like the presidents before him. What did he say in one of his debates with McCain? Something to the effect of "We will hunt down and Destroy Al Qaeda." He wants to enlarge the troop count in Afghanistan. This is hardly the rhetoric or the actions of a MLK. And since I don't know for sure what a dead civil rights leader may actually think, I would suggest looking into modern black activists, like Glen Ford or Mumia Abu-Jamal, to get a living idea of the comparisons. Anyway, I do think it is a small step forward. Lets Just "hope" Obama can prove to be more of an MLK than a George W. Bush!

kristofeR PASSAGGIO

North Hollywood, CA