From the Ragtag Cinema website
It couldn't have just been the chill of Columbia's brisk weather that left shivers down my back as I sat watching the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. It ran up and down the streets as people asked each other if they would be watching the swearing in, it lingered around the journalism school at the university and it reverberated in the theatre seats of the Columbians who sat next to me at Ragtag watching live history on a wide screen. A screen that played scenes from Slumdog Millionaire and Milk the night before. Two movies that displayed the themes of progression and hope that come to fruition with the presidential inauguration today.To see how far we have come you have to look at the past and also the present. I will view this event as it is, a historical milestone of progress, but the election of the first black president is not a fix for the problems of our past and present. I take comfort from something I learned in a recent class that looked at the media's coverage of politics. Members of the media tend to be more critical of those politicians they like than ones they don't, as if to make up for their personal bias...it's a strange phenomenon, but I hope it is true and the diligent effort of journalism, to watch over the government, prevails throughout this new era over Obama's celebrity during his campaign.
haha yeah i just started one a last week. the inauguration was amazing!!! and i've been watching the inauguration ball. ps: i like the blog layout
ReplyDeleteBah, logging in lost my comment, which went something like this: Your post here inspired a response to a friend's note on fb--neat, huh?
ReplyDeleteIs there a term for the phenomenon? I agree with it in part, but would emphasize the "as if" in "as if to make up for their own personal bias" were I forced to take an opinion. I'm very curious to see how the media treats Obama in the next few months or year(s) but they will probably pander to how their viewer-demographics feel, whatever gets them money and ratings, etc.
Of course there are so many people emotionally and, amazingly, actively involved in the election and Obama presidency that those demographics might be sufficiently changed as to allow for a more diverse opinion on the part of the media. Ahh, too vague.
I like the mention of the screen (still haven't see the buoyant hymn to life yet, though) because, in part, it places the experience within the realm of cinema. A bit dramatic, but I'm just having fun.
To think your shiver was not just shared by your peers in Columbia, MO, but also by all sorts of people in all sorts of corners of the world, is cool. Even cooler, even more compelling, is that they were peers based on something(s) more abstract then age or gender or, admittedly, skin color.
And really, howevermany years from now, "Where were you during Obama's inauguration?" -- it's sad to know my sister will say "In class, collecting a syllabus." I hope you skipped or, at the very least, the class was more than a syllabus.