Hail and Welcome, Great Orator

Some years ago, at another crisis point in history, a charismatic American defied political and logistical odds to do something that many thought impossible. He used technology and conviction to bring hope and relief to a beleaguered people, and marked the occasion with an electrifying speech culminating in the words that symbolized his belief that humanity is one, and the suffering of one is the suffering of all:

ICH BIN EIN BERLINER (I am a Berliner)


Today, many, many people around the globe feel that same electric power, and the sense of


ICH BIN EIN AMERIKANER


Apprentice Writer confesses that she listened to the inaugural speech of hard truths and hope with tears. Her parents, of two different countries, faiths, and ethnicities, met and married in the United States during the same year that Martin Luther King gave his much-referenced speech. They still had to fill in the blank on the marriage certificate to indicate their color. (Her mother wrote 'white', her father 'brown'; AW figures this means she herself is beige). If nothing else, AW hopes that the advent of this Presidency means that the junior apprentice writers will grow up in a world where it will not occur to anyone that there is any point to collecting such information anymore.

All the best to you and your family, Mr. President.


(note: post title refers to title of previous post, below)