There is Beauty Everywhere. Equal Rights Now.

Found on the blog of my dear Maya, this video of Philip Spooner, a WWII vet speaking out for EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE made me weep with hope. Oh, if we all had the heart of this man. Equal Fucking Rights Now. This bigotry shit is so redonk.

Thank You for Your Honesty

{Because we cannot mourn what we cannot see, I am appreciative that this ban from the ugly tragedy of war has finally been lifted.}

Pentagon Approves Media Photos Of War Dead, Officials Say: News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday. The ban on media photos was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.

{Full story on NPR. Image by the fine photographer Autumn de Wilde.}

Ama Loves Obama

{I actually had a dream about him last night. One of those dreams where you're shocked and so happy to find that someone like Barack Obama really likes you and wants to be your best friend. Anyway, just wanted to share some links to beautiful, inspiring words, images, and sounds, oh my lord. I've been a crying fool these last few days, inspired like never before to live, to do my best, to GIVE IT ALL BACK.}

What Have I Been Looking At?

NYT's transcript of Elizabeth Alexander's beautiful inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day. Indeed:

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day.

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign;
The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

The overwhelming We Are One concert, complete with the previously deleted invocation, and a Jon Bon Jovi who can actually pull off A Change Gonna Come. And Pete Seeger doing This Land Is Your Land With Springsteen? Beyonce doing America The Beautiful? Forget about it. I was Niagara Falls All Over the Place.

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address (Excerpts Below):

In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by nine campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. Thank you. God bless you. And God Bless America.

• The gorgeous cupcake pic from the beautiful blog Heart of Light
• The precious pic of a little girl all dressed up for the big day, by Michael Appleton for the New York Times.
• The rest of the pics, also from the NYT.

Person of the Year

Person of the Year (From Time Magazine):

"In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States.

Jack's College Photos of Obama
Initially, before she dug the film out from her basement, Jack never thought her pictures would have much life beyond her own darkroom.

Handsome
Of her first meeting (in a campus eatery) with Obama, Jack remembers only that "He was really cute. But what else does a 20-year-old girl remember?

Styled
In the photos, Jack says, 'You can see he is just posing, initially, but as the shoot goes on, he starts to come out. He was very charismatic even then.' "

Change. Hope. Happiness.

Doesn't the morning just feel a little bit better now that we have a new president? Check out Obama's Change for America site! Picture from Men's Vogue. Really.