It's "No Fire Day" For Obama

A “news” headline on AOL’s “Welcome” page asks what Obama is doing today (George Bush’s last full day in office). For Heaven’s sake, what should he be doing today besides resting up? Any good athlete knows better than to practice hard the day before the big game.
Anyway, what could he do? He doesn’t have clearance yet to use the White House Phone. He has no authority to give a command or issue an Executive Order. If he’s as sane as I hope he is, Obama has figured out that he’s listened to all the expert jawing that could possibly do any good, he’s talked to all the Congressional chieftains, he’s done everything a non-president can do. So stop. Sufficient unto the Lame Duck period is the evil thereof—or something like that.
Hopefully he’s doing what a smart athlete would do—resting. You know, a nice breakfast, a long shower, saying Goodbye to the kids as they leave for school, going back to bed with his lovely wife, a quiet lunch with her… . (A nap if he’s really smart.)
When the kids come home, taking a final pre-presidential moment to talk to them, read to them, play a game with them—order in something that the whole family enjoys as a treat. Eat it privately—and THEN put on the professional smile, the elegant suit and go out to greet the adoring mob.
But the hours before that should be spent in a way that reminds me of a custom we have in Michigan. Our biggest holiday is November 15—the opening of deer hunting season. It dwarfs days like Christmas or July 4. The interesting day is November 14. Leading up to that the air is full of sound and lead as hunters sight in the weapons that have lain unused since last year.
It usually sounds like a small war. It intensifies until the 12th and 13th when it sounds like a fairly major war. Obama has conducted his entire post election warm up as if he and aides from every sector of society were warming up to hunt. He and his experts have been firing off their political and economic guns at every imaginable target. (No deer of course; hunting season doesn’t start until January 20th.)
What he should do with the 19th is declare it a personal “No Fire Day” and take it off. In Michigan, the silence on November 14 is almost spooky. It’s a quiet day. (One last peaceful day for the deer, as well.)
I don’t know if Obama did that—but I hope for his sake and ours he did. A little quiet reflection might be in order as well. Yes, they’ll be cheering madly tonight. They’ll be adoring. If it were a modern custom, they would strew the ground in front of him with their coats—lest Obama might have to walk on pavement like an ordinary mortal.
They’ll cheer tomorrow. They’ll adore tomorrow. And for most of next week and very likely beyond. But I remember February, 1965—one month after Lyndon Johnson was sworn in.
They adored him on inauguration day. An incredibly vast landslide of Republicans and Democrats had voted him into office. He represented in his flesh the very embodiment of the hopes and dreams of all Black Americans and white Americans of good will and civil rights orientation.
One month later those same Black and Liberal Americans (who had cheered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its promoter so lustily) would be parading back and forth in front of the White House chanting, “LBJ—you just wait ‘til ’68!” (This was BEFORE he sent troops into Vietnam!)
I listened to the hatred in that chant and thought, “You’re done, Johnson, you’re done.” (He had decided not to back King on one more march.) He was indeed done. He didn’t even try to run in 1968.
The Romans would put a slave in the chariot of a conquering hero as he paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome. “Sic transit gloria mundi”, the slave would keep repeating, trying to be heard over the cheers. “Thus passes the glory of man.”
The Christian tradition could remind Obama that the same crowd that shouts, “Hosanna to the King!” can shout “Crucify him!” the very next week.
All Obama has to do is walk on water, turn debt into asset, bring universal peace and give everybody his $17.00 an hour job back. Oh yes, and sell a few million Fords and Chevys and turn everybody’s quarter into a dollar so that huge mortgages can be paid on McDonald’s wages.
To do all of that, he certainly needed a day of rest today. They’ll be lots of firing Wednesday.