Columnists
The Spiceman Cometh
T. SHER SINGH
NEWS REPORT - Friday, January 25, 2013: After ordering a Spicy McChicken sandwich, a man called the police to a McDonald’s restaurant because his food was too spicy. [Harry Bradford, Huffington Post]
The world is a-changing, slowly but surely.
Is it for the better, or is it for the worse?
Regardless of how you see it, Change will march on.
You can call the cops, if you want. But there’s no stopping change.
Blame it on God, if you will, if you don’t want to give the science of evolution its due.
And as change burgeons along, inevitably and irreversibly, each one of us has but two choices: to take it with grace, or to sulk through it.
In other words, either embrace it and enjoy it … or, complain and mourn and be miserable.
If you are one of those who easily gets heartburn, Obama’s inauguration last Monday would have sent you to the pharmacy, that‘s for sure.
If you’re one of those who thinks that the biggest story of the event was Beyonce’s lip synching, you’re probably walking around as constipated as the poor Republican leader John Boehner looked, desperate for relief.
The following spices would just not have gone down well with you either:
1 At the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral -- attended by the President, the First Lady, the Vice-President, et al -- Sikh-American Sapreet Kaur (Executive Director, Sikh Coalition) was asked to offer a prayer. She did, and was joined by members of the other faiths that, collectively, so enrich the country.
2 The VIP attendees who sat behind the President during his address at the Capitol, and those who sat immediately in front of him, on the landing below, consisted of a fair representation of the land’s citizenry, and not a lop-sided list as had always been the case until the advent of Barack Obama 4 years ago.
Harpreet Singh Sandhu (Richmond, California), Anju Kaur (SikhNN), Amardeep Singh (Sikh Coalition), Amarjit Singh (Washington), Balwinder Singh Chatha (Gainesville, Virginia), and his wife (United Sikhs), were amongst the invited guests.
3 The invocation was delivered by Myrlie Evers-Williams, a civil rights leader and the former chairperson of the NAACP.
4 The real story re Beyonce is that it was a Black-American presenting the National Anthem, not that she had pre-recorded it (as is commonly, though not always, done in such situations). It was lip-synced? So, call the cops! Or take a laxative or something. [The Tabernacle Choir at the inauguration also had pre-recorded portions. So?]
5 Another real story of the day was not that Chief Justice Roberts didn’t flub the oath ceremony this time around, but that a Hispanic-American Associate Justice -- Sonia Sotomayor -- had made history by swearing-in the Vice-president.
6 The poet-laureate for the inauguration was 44-year-old Cuban American Richard Blanco … who is also openly gay. Check out the photo of Newt Gingrich at the inauguration, if you can find it. I think he had fainted! I jest not … [It’s disappeared from the internet!]
7 The day, nay, the entire inaugural event, was dedicated to the memory of an African-American, Martin Luther King, Jr. Appropriately!
8 The parade had as many Chinese-American, Black-American, Hispanic-American, Native-American and other minority participants as those from the rest of the country. Which is how it should be. Always. [Where was the Sikh-American float?]
I could go on and on but all I am doing is stating the obvious to those who saw the inauguration from the best seats in the house: your own living room, in front of the telly.
It does explain a lot, doesn’t it, of what we saw -- and what we didn’t.
It explains John Boehner’s funereal pallor: he did not look a happy camper. No grace, no class.
And the (Republican) elephants who weren’t in the room?
It explains why George W Bush stayed home in Texas, too glum to even offer an excuse. Or why Mitt Romney remained buried while his son hastened to explain that Daddy didn’t really want to be President anyway. Maybe he’ll stop sulking one day and emerge on, say, Groundhog Day?
Rick Santorum? Oh, he was busy waiting for a reply to his text to God ... "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Still waiting ...
Sarah Palin? She was busy keeping an eye on the Russians from her bedroom window. That’s what they do in Alaska, she says.
Well.
Think about all the change brought about by the extraordinary and long-overdue election of a Black-American to the White House. Sure, most of it is symbolic -- some would add, ‘merely’ -- and I would agree.
But just you watch; the rest will follow, as sure as the homo sapiens followed the chimpanzee.
Like the McChicken sandwich at McDonald’s, yes, the world is going to get spicier … and better … no ifs and buts about it.
And, if you’re one of those who haven’t yet learnt to enjoy it or deal with it, if you have fought against, if you’ve resisted the inevitability of change, it’s going to hurt a little bit.
Every morning.
January 25, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Bikram Singh (Virginia, USA), January 25, 2013, 6:30 AM.
Great summary of the Inauguration. Enjoyed it as much as the event itself. Thanks.