She's A Machine

My first impression upon hearing Elizabeth Alexander read her poem was that I was listening to a computer speaking random words. Her delivery was poor to the point of making the poem difficult to understand. As Jon Stewart aptly put it, it was as if her role in the proceedings was to encourage people to leave after President Obama had been sworn in. And it accomplished that end with flying colors.

The poem itself simply conjures up all the images that President Obama has been using throughout the election and the months following. It speaks of the ordinary American people and the hard times they currently face. And, like Obama, it suggests that at least part of the healing process must begin with the actions of these ordinary Americans and how they (we, I guess) treat each other. In other words, the poem is dreadfully repetitive. We have heard this before, and not from someone who spoke with a dull, mechanical voice, but from someone who’s delivery was inspiring, and who incidentally was elected over a man who spoke in a dull, mechanical tone.

Obama himself, on the other hand, managed to make even his morbid speech about the problems we face as a country seem almost hopeful. He made several jabs at FORMER President George W. Bush that left me feeling good inside. On the other hand, there were many parts of his speech that reminded me painfully of Bush’s speeches, mostly the ones he gave when he was trying to placate an increasingly fed up nation. Now, I support Obama, I voted for him, and I was one of the many who stormed Kirkwood on election night. I’m happy he’s our president, I’m just saying that his Inaugural address had better be the only even slight similarity to Bush, because I voted against McCain to prevent a repeat of the last eight years.

Let me end by saying that I hope the Elizabeth Alexander poem we read during the semester isn’t as bad as the one she read yesterday. But then, at least she won’t be reading it aloud to us.