It was winter and it was cold and I was attending law class for media rights at Humboldt University’s career center to get a change from my literature studies.

I remember watching the inauguration of the first black president of America starting his job and skipping class on that evening very clearly, because afterwards, I had to write a paper about creative commons for missing that class…

Listening to pastor Rick Warren, whose book I had read at church in Korea (I do not believe in that institution any more), listening to legendary Aretha Franklin, I was very touched, even though I was not a US citizen.

You will remember the inaugural poem by Elizabeth Alexander:

Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander

A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
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 some one 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 thyself,
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 pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

“A new birth of freedom” the ceremoy was called.

And it was. Obama gave everybody hope and tried to clean up the mess his predecessors had. I know a lot of people are not happy about the final outcome of his presidental term, but hey. It could have been worse.

I am just saying: Sarah Palin. I am not really into American politics, but I do have an eye on that continent now and then as it is one of the leading world powers. When I saw that Sarah Palin had made it so far in the States, I thought “There is no hope for he human race” and was very glad she announced she will not run for president this year.

I always keep quiet if it comes to politics, as I think I have yet more to learn before I openly say my opinion. But in this case, I dare to say it out loud: America is big and this means there are more of those morons on that continent – Mitt Romney.

Maybe because I am not really into politics and I do not know what much else Mitt Romney has to offer besides stupid quotes that make me ask if he really, really has two degrees from Harvard University, maybe my lack of insight makes me think like this, but Americans. If you vote for someone like Mitt Romney, I seriously do not know where you will be in four years.

I am shocked to see that such people even make it for the run and that there are people stupid enough to support him.

I do hope that Obama will be given another term to prove that there is HOPE for America’s future and for the rest of the world.