Obama's View an Ode to America's Promise

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/18/washington/AP-Obamas-View.html?_r=1

When Barack Obama mounts the podium to take the oath and deliver his inaugural address, when he looks out upon the National Mall and hundreds of thousands of bright and hopeful faces, he will see so much more: the symbols of a nation forever struggling to live up to its promise.

Start first with that memorial to the first president, the 555-foot Washington Monument. In his first inaugural address, George Washington famously called the United States a great experiment in democracy -- a nod to the Founders' belief that this was a work in progress. The preamble to the Constitution sets the nation's sights on ''a more perfect union.''

Imperfect, indeed. That same Constitution counted slaves as three-fifths a person in considering apportionment for the U.S. House. And many of the Founders, including Washington himself, owned slaves.

''In this sense, our nation is still an experiment,'' said historian Paul Boller, author of a book on presidential inaugurations. ''In other words, we haven't reached a level of perfection but we have grown.''

They get paid less, etc.

Our society still doesn't trust a woman to host a game show, or a late night talk show.

It prefers to pay to see movies featuring male stars and the lines spoken by women in film have been on the decline for several years.

All our military leaders are men.

All the people involved in the financial crisis - CEOs and govt. are all men.