Editorial



It's everyone's White House now. That was the real message of the inauguration of Barack Obama. The act of making an African-American, one whose father was born in a village in Kenya, the nation's 44th president rose above any of yesterday's lofty phrases.

The change could be seen in the multi-colored sea of faces that filled the Mall and packed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

It could be seen in the quartet of musicians who played a composition that included a simple Shaker hymn. \

It could be seen in the tears on the cheeks of the elderly African-Americans in the million-strong throng, people who had experienced discrimination and worse, and nonetheless kept fighting to make the words of the Declaration of Independence come true.

Obama's inauguration was, it seems, a mythic event. One of those markers of which, a generation hence, people will ask, where were you when he was sworn in?

The swirls of emotion that swept through crowds - even people gathered to watch in Concord's Capitol Center for the Arts cried - raises fears of dashed expectations. But, as the new president said, such fears must be put aside because there's too much to do, too much to change.

The president's inaugural address, though devoid of lines that instantly etched themselves in history, was simultaneously elevating and sobering. Much has gone wrong, and it will take time and sacrifice to put things to right. "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America," Obama said. But he spoke to the world as well, and offered America's aid, good will and desire to work with any nation willing to strive for peace.

The world was listening. By one report, more than 13 million computers all over the planet were linked to CNN's broadcast as the president took the oath of office. Hundreds of millions more, no doubt, watched, then waited for change to begin.

Here's one instant sign that the Obama presidency will be different: Before the new president had even been sworn in, with the flip of a switch the official White House website ushered in the new era. The site outlines the president's agenda in specific terms and explains what will be done in haste, what will take time, and what needs help. But it does so much more than any of its predecessors. It invites the American public to participate in informing and advising the president and in rebuilding the country.

The first post on the White House blog went up one minute past noon. It explained, among other things, that from now on every piece of non-emergency legislation will be posted in full for public comment at least five days before the president signs it. Government, to the extent any government can be, will be transparent and open. Before the Obamas left the stage, the era of participatory democracy in the internet age had begun.

In his warm and stirring benediction, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a cofounder with Dr. Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, spoke to the world when he prayed that "the tanks will be beaten into tractors" and "every man and every woman shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid," and when he called for "inclusion not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance."

But no words better captured the day's significance, for all who care about equality and justice, then those of an elderly black minister interviewed after the inauguration who said: Millions of us have loved a country that didn't always love us back. But now, the White House is our house too.