Auguri Mr. President!

i-Italy decided to join the historical Inauguration of January 20, 2009, by asking its bloggers and commentators to summarize in few words their 'thoughts and feelings'. We will be publishing them here during the day as we receive them.

The Editors

 ANTHONY J. TAMBURRI

 The election of Barack Hussein Obama as our president is historical in every sense of the word, as has been articulated ad infinitum by pundits on TV, in the newspapers, and on the internet. Indeed, we should all be most proud of what this country was able to accomplish in this election cycle, especially given the past eight years! For I truly believe there was the risk that Obama would lose, if everything depended on the war in Iraq, which I see grounded in a blind anti-Arab (read, also, “non white”) bigotry that is still quite rampant in this country. So, we have a bit of a schizophrenic phenomenon that has taken place, something that underscores a certain paradox: the tide in this election turned on the economy, and oh how odd that this country turned against the iconic Anglo-Saxon Protestant who, to date, has really run the economy and all that sustains it. Perhaps, here, too, there is now a paradigm shift, and President Obama, hopefully, will convince the Caucasoid collective consciousness that one need not be White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or some semblance thereof, to steer the United States in the right direction, be it economic, political, and/or social. Alla riscossa!

JAMES PERICONI

When I met Barack Obama at an Upper East Side fundraiser a couple of months before the election, I gushed like a schoolgirl, “I want so much for the sensitive and thoughtful man who wrote Dreams from My Father to be my President,” without even introducing myself properly. He was very touched.  Obama is the first President who has frizzy, kinky hair like me.  That means he understands what it means to be “the other,” to be marginal, to see things from the outside. 

If Bill Clinton was metaphorically our first black President, as many said, then in my view, Barack Obama is metaphorically our first Italian-American President. 

MARC DIPAOLO

I have heard the warnings. It is dangerous and cultish to idolize a president to the extent that Obama is odolized.  After all, he may, one day, make a disastrous mistake, or find himself mired in scandal.  Certainly the British were very disappointed in Tony Blair, whose great promise at the start of his tenure as Prime Minister ended so terribly badly.  In a similar fashion, I may, one day, come to repent donatring money to Obama's campaign, supporting his platform in emotional arguments with my conservative friends, and enthusiastically voting for him.  But when I heard our new president's brilliant, sensitive, and insightful inauguration address today, I was reminded of why I have an Obama bumper sticker, an Obama picture framed on my wall, and an Obama T-shirt.  I have these pieces of memoribilia, not because I have him confused with a rock star, but because his victory means so much to me.  This man - the first president I have ever voted for who has won the election - represents a victory of intelligence over ignorance, hope over fear, pragmatism over ideology, and tolerance over prejudice.  Socrates believed that government attracts the worst sorts of villains, and that no good person can ever ascend to high political office and successfully change the system for the better. The very dark film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, argues much the same thing, in its own way. Obama gives me hope that both Plato and Frank Capra are wrong, and that a good man finally has ascended to the highest office in the land.  And tt is my greatest hope that President Obama is a good man who has just enough political saavy in him to actually change our country - and the world - for the better. 

Someone who shares my beliefs, and my worldview, has finally become president, and it feels just like Christmas ... only better.

And, come on ... even if Obama does make some really big mistakes, he's gotta be better than that last dude who was president.  Seriously.

GEORGE DESTEFANO

Hope and change, the powerful, emotive bywords of the Barack Obama Experience, have inspired millions, and not only the Americans who elected him President. Eight years of Bush-Cheney couldn’t extinguish the hope for change that Obama has brilliantly articulated and channeled. The Obama administration indeed will bring change, much of it welcome. But it won’t be the kind of radical reform we badly need. I’m dismayed by Obama’s centrism, his retaining of Clinton and Bush officials, his evident belief that he can kumbaya away profound, even irreconcilable political differences. (Yes, I’m still unhappy about Rick Warren.) But today, at the dawn of Obama’s presidency, I’m relieved that Bush and Cheney are gone (it’s the end of an error), and yes, even hopeful for a better, if not a radically transformed, United States of America.

JERRY KRASE

I took the subway (la Metro) this morning to Manhattan to do some business and hoped to get back in time to watch the inauguration on television with my wife. Across from me on the usually yuppy-packed "F" train was what appeared to me to be a middle-aged African American homeless (senza tetto) woman bundled up in an odd collection of winter and summer outerwear. She was fast asleep and next to her sat the usual collection of black plastic garbage bags containing all that she felt worthy of trudging along with her as she traveled on her way to nowhere (in nessun posto) on a cold and Historic Inauguration Day. She gave off such a foul odor (odore ripugnante) that she had half the car all to herself. A long line of persons of no-color, previously residing in the White House, have found other things too important to consider than her obvious plight. My wish is that Barack Hussein not only remembers the people his predecessors left behind in America, but also comes back to visit them (ritorni per visitarli).

ROBERT VISCUSI

My wife and I watched the whole morning on television. It reminded me how much of our participation in the national imaginary has taken place through that medium: the Kennedy-Nixon debates, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the Kennedy assassination and funeral, and many others down the years, so that live television often seems to me the site where these things occur.  When I had just started graduate school, I walked into a student lounge at Cornell, and people were standing around with long faces, talking about the end of the world. Kennedy had just laid down his ultimatum to Khrushchev over the Cuban missiles. Obama certainly understands the use of electronic media better than his predecessors. It was his mastery of these tools that brought the vast ocean of people onto the Capitol Mall on this freezing morning. My son Robert with his girlfriend Liz and my daughter Victoria were all there, taking part in what I am sure is a definitive rite of their generation. Their devotion to this cause has been unflinching. It is clear that they and their friends understand Obama’s message with a clarity we can only admire.  Nancy and I at home remained true to our own traditions, and, while the new Obama had lunch with the Congress, we celebrated the new president’s call to austerity and sacrifice by lunching on grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, sitting in front of the TV.

FRED GARDAPHE

Both of my children are at the inauguration, they will be the first of my families who have been in the U.S. for three generations, to attend such an event.  My son worked with Obama as a Senate intern and then in his campaign.  My daughter has been in school and is the single-mother of a beautiful grandson, Michaelangelo, she has taken the time to make her way to D.C. to be with her brother on this historic occasion.  I can say that this is the first time that I have felt that a U.S. president bode well for my family.   My belief is that we have a man who  is sincere, who is not perfect, but who has the intelligence to find ways to get things done.   What is best about Obama is that he reflects more of me than any other president.  In that respect he will motivate me to work even harder.  That is the way I see it.  I hope that he continues to instill hope in the people he will serve.

JUDITH HARRIS

The real joy in the vast majority of Italians of whatever political persuasion is that they can again look to America, rather than Amerika (as the graffiti would have it), for inspiration--they can feel heartened, sharing in the general sense of wonderment and hope. In Rome this evening the portiere in our building is locking the doors an hour early, not for security, but so that he can rush to a friend's to watch Obama sworn in. Something like five hundred have signed up to attend the celebration organized by the Democrats Abroad in Rome, on the panoramic top floor of a hotel near the Stazione Termini. Those who managed to obtain bookings (long since closed) will watch the "insediamento" via CNN with Rome's CNN crew watching them watching CNN. Later in the evening parties are organized in public places, including the Testaccio. The excitement is palpable--but in some observers here is also resentment that there is no Obama for Italy yet. But despite the economic crunch, still felt softly here, not everyone agrees: Premier Silvio Berlusconi may be exaggerating when he claims over 80% approval rating, about the same as Obama, but there is little doubt just now that his opposition is still adrift on the Titanic, surrounded by big icebergs, and instead of dancing, squabbling.

(Post scriptum: Today's Roman handout newspaper 'City' had Obama on its front cover dressed as Superman, ripping off his white shirt to show a big O (instead of S). "Today America writes an important new page in its history.")

PASQUALE VERDICCHIO

This inauguration is historical in the widest possible sense.  It is representative in a large sense of progress that has been made possible by the enormous movements across lands and continents by people migrating and joining in spite of racial, ethnic or national differences. I myself cried at the announcement of Obama's victory, but what is more important is that my children, born in the US but too young to vote, have been politicized to an even greater extent than before by these elections.  This time the elections were different because we were completely FOR a candidate, rather than against our fears. My children's pride in the diverse nature of their family (Italian, Dutch, Ghanian, Irish and a smattering of who knows how many other branches of humanity) has found in Obama a hope for the expression of diversity that has been here-to-fore absent.  Our family greets this inaugural day with great emotion as the inauguration of a new vision.

CHIARA MONTALTO

On New Year's Eve I received a text message that read, "Change brings challenge, but challenge brings opportunity, so don't be skurred". Having recently lost my job and facing a personal challenge, those words resonated strongly with me. So much so, I saved the message.

My eight year old godson, the absolute joy of my life, and I were hanging out the other day. Since he now wants to either be a rockstar or a chemist, I took him to his first ever rock concert; the science museum is next month.  Suky's father is Nigerian, and his mom is African - American. For an eight year old, he knows more about disappointment, inner strength and reinvention than most adults, certainly more than I do.  The other day, on the way to the concert, he was telling me of a film he saw in school about Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. We spoke about the Civil Rights Movement, about how, in the not so distant past,  I probably wouldn't have been his godmother. Then he said "Godmommy, now that Obama is President, I can fly."

And that is where my head is these days. Change is here. Not just the word, not just the surface meaning- but seismic change- change that is not defined by the color  of our President's skin alone, but truly, finally, honestly, by the content of his character. The opportunities born of that, for my godson, for future generations, are endless. Hope lives on the horizon.

LAURA RUBERTO

On the eve of Obama’s inauguration, I sit and read poetry and feel an excitement and optimism about having such an intelligent and forward-thinking man as president of the United States. I’m not expecting miracles from him but the clarity of thought that comes with a sparkly-new day. And so, I share my thoughts through the lyricism of Sandra Mortola Gilbert’s poem, “Dawn”:

Dawn

A constellation of new lights.

the clock drops five clear notes

into the cold pool of the sky,

and the night peels away in layers—

old bark, old skin, old

heavy thought.

            Birds rise,

flowers, trees, dew-colored boards, all

shimmering. And the sleepers

sink deeper into themselves:

darkness blooms on the inside of their skulls

like new fur.

(Sandra Mortola Gilbert, In the Fourth World, U of Alabama P, 1979)

MARINA MELCHIONDA

When I was a child my grandpa used to show me pictures of the presidents of the USA on a small colored book for children. I looked at them and I saw the "typical President face": white, wrinkled, seraphic. Now I turn on the TV and I see a young, charismatic, enthusiastic man. I feel he can do much for me, for my people and nation, for the rest of the world. And I think: "Yes, this is the kind of person that does represent me".

PETER CARRAVETTA

I am presently teaching a course on American Social History at the University of Nanjing. During the past two weeks I have taken Chinese students through the Declaration of Independence, the basics of the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other documents all the way to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a Dream." American history is full of ups and down, but I realized, and taught, that America has always found a way of straightening itself out and march ahead. I am extremely proud today to announce to my students that we have elected the first black President, especially after having studied how blacks, Amerindians and immigrants have suffered to build this country. And yet, as Dr. King had wished, we have matured to the point that we judged Mr Obama by the content of his character and not the color of his skin. He has shown us that the politics of race, much like anti-immigration policies and other local aberrations, are to be put behind us. To say it is an historic moment doesn't half capture the symbolic magnitude of this election. From 7,000 miles away, I wish the new President and his close ones health and success, fully confident that he will take this great country to new democratic heights.

ELEONORA MAZZUCCHI

When I look at Barack Obama I don't see safety or certainty, but instead a wonderful kind of uncertainty. Even if I didn't believe in the hype that surrounded Barack Obama, I know that his inauguration marks the end of eight years' worth of predictable mistakes and even more predictable rhetoric. I look forward to seeing what our young, new President does. 

MARIA LAURINO

During primary season, I wrote a blog about how my 87-year-old mother, the daughter of southern Italia immigrants, passionately supported Barack Obama.  How marvelous the American journey, I thought back then, that a woman born in a time of tremendous racial prejudice could overcome this tainted piece of our past and embrace Barack Obama.  Today, what began as a campaign that offered a shining moment of hope becomes the improbable reality of all those children of America whose dreams have been deferred and all those children of immigrants who came here seeking to change their lives. The expectations, of utopian proportion, of course can never be met, but it is the extraordinary moment that is to celebrated.

FRANK VIVIANO

The day after the election, an official "Obama Day" was proclaimed by Umberto Sereni -- mayor of the town of Barga, in western Tuscany, where I've lived for the past decade. Posters (see attached) were displayed all over town, reading "Bion Lavoro, Presidente."

The suggestion, immediately understood by all of my neighbors, was that Obama is somehow their new leader too. It was a far cry from the grim reactions that U.S. policymakers had elicited locally in the Bush years. Every day in the weeks since, people have approached me (the symbolic Barga Americano) on the street, to congratulate me, to tell me of the importance this election holds for them. The "problems" that used to be thought of as ours alone -- race relations, the response to massive immigration, the challenge of new technology to traditional ways -- are nearly universal in 2009. And on some profound level, the rest of the world still looks to America for hope and inspiration, a role it had seemingly lost forever and has now regained.

I watched the swearing-in and inaugural speech on television at a neighbor's home, in the company of 20 Barghigiani. The only that broke the silence was an occasional sob. The poster had it right: At least for the moment, this calm and brilliant son of a white Kansan mother and an African father is indeed everybody's Presidente.

DAMIANO BELTRAMI

Dear Mr. President,

you're are asked to be like Roberto Baggio for the Italian soccer team during the USA 94 world cup: a magician able to pull rabbits out of your hat. Don't stress out. Bring chance, but don't chance yourself. Stay what you are. A regular, smart guy who works hard to create opportunities for people who dream big like you.

MARY CAPPELLO

On election day in the mixed race, mixed class neighborhood that I live and vote in in Providence, RI, something happened. Something that was palpable and visible and felt and real, and it wasn’t like anything I’d experienced before. People leaving the polling stations, walking the avenues back to our homes or our cars, stopping for coffee at the Classic Café, made eye contact in a new way, spoke to one another, as if seeing and hearing each other for the first time: a sudden embodiment, acknowledgment, community: an opening occurred, and this was even before we knew that Barack Obama would win the presidency. I believe that Obama’s presidency has the power to alter and open our relations in these very basic and powerful ways, from the ground up, where we live. Visiting Canada recently, where my partner, Jean’s family lives, in British Columbia, Jean and I were chatting downstairs in my brother-in-law’s house, and my sister-in-law asked my 2 year old niece, Sophie, who was upstairs and just waking who was talking downstairs? “Obama,” she replied. Somehow she got it in her head that we were not Aunt Jeannie and Aunt Mary but “the United States,” the people from the other country: “Obama,” she named us. We loved that, and we hope she calls us “Obama” for a very long time!

LETIZIA AIROS SORIA

On the Internet, on TV, in the streets...everywhere there are images of people celebrating. Happiness and incredulity fill everybody's eyes, and this is especially true for  black people, as the first Afro-American president enters the White House. No doubt this is the first important result of this historical election. Just a few years ago, this would have been unimaginable: in this country, blacks were enslaved and, still today, we see serious instances of discrimination. I try to keep my feet on the ground, I do not show the enthusiasm that everybody seems to harbor. But we all hope from the depth of our heart that Obama's Presidency will be a landmark step for the United States. When I look at the first choices Obama is making I find in his interracial and "mixed" team further hope for change. Not only in America, but also in Europe, in my country, in Italy. His are men and women of different ethnic origin, among whome are also several Italian Americans. In this world we must guarantee reciprocal acceptance among different peoples and cultures, and together they must share the power to govern our nations. This is, for me, the pivotal contribution that Obama can - and hopefully will - give to the whole world.

MARIA RITA LATTO

 In the last days the media have been focusing on this unique event like it had never happened for past presidents. It is possible to feel even here, so far from the USA, so many expectations on the new president. Talking with people there is the impression that  in Italy too Mr. Obama is seen as someone having the hard task to bring a deep change. Paradoxically, even for the Italians he is a symbol of hope, arrived in the moment of a deep crisis. This wide echo is unexpected and creates a weird feeling, as if we were spying in the darkness, from an external window, a wonderful party happening inside a magnificent mansion, and that from this outer position we are regretting to have been excluded, not to have been invited. The main feeling in the Italians is the consciousness that the Americans have just turned a page, that, at least, they had the courage to react. And chosing a Man breaking with the past, a man who has become the symbol of change, hope, renewal without having actually been the president, is the real turning point. Whatever the results will be, at least in the USA there was a real change. The challenge is so hard, though, they are trying! Watching the images from the USA there is a strong impression that the Americans have regained the capability to dream, against reality, against a devastating crisis, that there is still something to believe in. In Italy, instead, there is the sensation that, apparently, all the hopes, dreams, ideals, have faded away. Tiredness, disillusionment seem the dominant feelings, more than ever after having watched the Inauguration of President Obama. And the absurdity is that the hopes of the Italian people are projected on a man who has just become the American president!

 

RENATA CONTE

Speaking through and with my dear departed Father's thoughts and hopes, my family and I welcome Mr. Obama as our new leader. We hope for the realization and fulfillment of Mr. Obama's words of change. We hope for the brightest of futures for all our children, that they may be privy to the same opportunities as the select few have been in the past. Buona Fortuna.