President Obama's "We Shall Overcome" moment on gay marriage

President Obama finally had his "We Shall Overcome" moment today when he endorsed the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love.

Congratulations, Mr. President. It's about time. 

Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce the Voting Rights Act. He talked about the efforts of black Americans to secure for themselves "the full blessings of American life." He said, "Their cause must be our cause, too." He even invoked the words of the civil-rights anthem, "And we shall overcome."

The president's remarks today saying that he believes same-sex couples should be able to get married were not as dramatic or momentous as Johnson's a generation earlier. Made during an interview with ABC News, they lacked the eloquence of a prepared speech.

There was no mention of repealing the odious Defense of Marriage Act. He didn't vow to fight for same-sex marriage. His deference to the states on the matter was a bit troubling. (States' rights, did that not ring a bell for anyone at the White House?)

Yet despite all of that his words, based on his own experiences and his religious convictions, sounded sincere. I like that he mentioned the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. And they are powerful for the way they frame the debate. The president finally figured out how to use the White House as a bully pulpit.

It's practically impossible today for any straight American to say that they don't know a gay person. They are our friends, our family, our teachers, our colleagues, our loved ones, our neighbors.

As President Obama said, they are members of his staff, people in committed relationships. They are soldiers and sailors fighting on his behalf. Their children are friends with his daughters. The president of the United States made the issue personal. There are people in his life who are gay and lesbian. And he doesn't see any reason why they should not be allowed to get married.

Anyone - and by that I mean my fellow straight Americans - who cares about this country becoming a more equal place for all of its citizens has a stake in this. The president's comments don't change anything but they push homophobia and anti-gay rhetoric a little further to the fringes of American society - where they belong.

A couple of years ago, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that as more people have come out of the closet, we've learned about those in our lives who are gay. "It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love."

I believe that with all of my heart. Today, I'm proud that my president believes it as well and was not hesitant to say it. Their cause must be our cause, too. That statement rings as true today as it did in 1965.

Another milestone for civil rights

This is what a civil-rights milestone looks like.

President Obama signed legislation today repealing "Don't ask, don't tell," allowing gay and lesbian Americans to serve openly in the armed forces. (And what a contrast with this picture, of President Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.)

Obama's remarks were inspiring, especially a story he told about an Army private, Lloyd Corwin, whose life was saved by a fellow soldier during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Decades later he learned that Andy Lee, the man who rescued him when he tumbled 40 feet down the side of a ravine, was gay.

The president said Corwin "didn’t much care. Lloyd knew what mattered. He knew what had kept him alive; what made it possible for him to come home and start a family and live the rest of his life. It was his friend.

"And he knew that valor and sacrifice are no more limited by sexual orientation than they are by race or by gender or by religion or by creed; that what made it possible for him to survive the battlefields of Europe is the reason that we are here today."

Well, I get choked up just reading that anecdote.

Corwin's son Miles was present at the bill-signing ceremony. He's a former Los Angeles Times reporter who wrote about his father's friendship with Lee in 1993. (At the time, Lee didn't want his name used, so Corwin calls him Frank.)

Like most straight people, I've had the experience of learning that friends and colleagues are gay or lesbian. Sometimes it doesn't happen until years after we've met. I understand that coming out is a difficult decision. There have been times when I've hesitated to tell someone that I'm Jewish and the stakes aren't nearly as high.

But I'm always honored that my friends and colleagues have trusted me enough to tell me something so personal. It doesn't change the way I feel about them. Being gay or lesbian is simply an immutable part of who they are and knowing more about them makes our friendship stronger.

I'm fortunate to have a diverse group of friends. (It would be pretty boring if I only knew people who were exactly like me.) Lloyd Corwin was right - sacrifice and valor are no more limited by sexual orientation than they are by race, creed, ethnicity or gender. Neither are generosity, integrity, patriotism and friendship.

It's unacceptable that my friends who are black or Latino or gay would be treated as anything less than decent, honorable people, as less than full and equal American citizens. So when I read this on Twitter today, from a writer named Mark Blankenship, it truly moved me and made me smile:

"The US president just declared the honor of gay people and took action to defend it. What strange joy to feel welcome in my country."

Now, Americans who are serving our country bravely will no longer have to hide who they are. That benefits all of us. You shouldn't have to hide who you are to do any job.

Like the president said, "We are not a nation that says, 'don’t ask, don’t tell.' We are a nation that says, “Out of many, we are one.” Today that includes even more of my friends, making me very proud - and joyful.

The music that changed history

Last week at the White House, President Obama hosted "A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement." It aired on PBS but I caught the concert online here.

I love the music of the 1960s, especially the songs that became civil-rights anthems. They were designed to inspire and lift the spirits of people who had been battered and bruised in the fight for equality. This was music meant to be actively sung, not simply listened to passively.

As Jon Pareles put it in his New York Times review, "If any music can claim to have changed history, it was the songs of the civil rights movement."

And how stirring to see and hear these songs not in some grainy black-and-white news footage from some small Southern town but in the elegance of the East Room.

Yolanda Adams sang Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," a song that always gets me choked up. I liked John Mellencamp's rockin' "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize."

How cool was it to hear Bob Dylan sing "The Times They Are A-Changin" for an audience that likely included actual senators and congressmen!

Of course, Joan Baez sang "We Shall Overcome," the song she performed at the March on Washington in 1963. What a perfect bookend to history.

It was incredible to listen to these songs and think about the people who sang them half a century ago, people who were beaten and jailed and even killed simply for trying to register African-Americans to vote.

Now, these same songs are performed at the White House in front of our country's first African-American president. Could anyone ever have imagined it?

Here are the performances by Adams:



And Dylan



And Baez

Something to makest thou chuckle

I know I'm a little late but last month The Boston Globe's Alex Beam penned a short three-act play about the Gates-gate affair as Shakespeare might have written it. (Thanks to The Playgoer for the tip.)

It's called The Sheriff at the Gates: A Farce in Three Acts, and it's wicked clever. (Or clevah, as they say in Cambridge.) I hope some theatre company puts it on someday!

In the meantime, to whettest thine whistle, (or is it thy whistle?) here's a snippet from Act Three:

(In the garden of the White Palace, GATES, BARACK and CROWLEY are sipping ale, joined by the FOOL.)

FOOL: What? No beer nuts?

BARACK: Silence, Fool! Or back to Delaware with you.

FOOL (sniffing his glass, suspiciously): What beer is this? I smell the filth of Antwerp and Bruges.

BARACK: ’Tis our nation’s finest, lately of St. Louis, now in foreign hands.

FOOL (Aside): ’Tis a light man that drinks a light beer.

A medal for Chita Rivera

Congratulations to two-time Tony winner Chita Rivera, among this year's 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor.

The award will be bestowed today at the White House by President Obama and you can watch the ceremony beginning at 3 p.m. at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

And what a great homecoming for the 76-year-old Washington, D.C., native, born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero. Here is what she said when the award was announced:

"When my mother was a child, she rolled Easter eggs on the lawn of the White House. And now, to receive The Medal of Freedom from our President, is truly a dream. I am deeply honored to receive this award and to be in such distinguished company. I only wish my parents were here to share it with...but they are!"

This year's recipients were chosen for being "agents of change," people who have blazed trails and broken down barriers.

Among her accomplishments, Rivera was the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center honor. And coincidentally, also visiting the White House today is another Latina groundbreaker: there's a reception this morning for newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. How fitting!

I've written before about how fortunate I was to see Ms. Rivera in the national tour of Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. That was in May 2007, when I was just starting to become a regular theatergoer. I knew who she was but I can't say that I knew a lot about her. And I never would have gone without a nudge from a wise friend.

I remember writing to my new e-mail pal Steve on Broadway and running down the list of everyone who was coming to the Providence Performing Arts Center that spring. He told me that if I wanted to see a true Broadway legend, I should make every effort to see Chita Rivera. So of course, I did. And of course, he was right.

What a terrific storyteller as well as a terrific singer and dancer! It was great to hear her talk about how she got her start, about working on shows like West Side Story and Chicago. I wish I could go back and see her again.

Update: Here are the White House comments on all of the Medal of Freedom recipients. The president used the words "sassy" and "electric" to describe Rivera, and I liked this quip: "Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero knows that adversity comes with a difficult name."

At Stonewall, stepping into history

Sometimes it's nice to go "off the grid" of midtown Manhattan's numerically organized streets, which is why I love walking around Greenwich Village. So on the evening I was seeing Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre, I went early to explore and enjoy a terrific dinner before seeing a great play.

Another thing I love about New York is that I'm always stumbling across someone or something unexpected.

On Christopher Street, I spotted The Stonewall Inn. I knew about its place in the gay-rights movement and I'd read Frank Rich's column in The New York Times on the 40th anniversary of the uprising that followed a police raid on the bar, on June 28, 1969.

I love seeing the places where history was made, so after snapping a few pictures, I went in to look around. (Later I learned that this isn't the original Stonewall, which was a little disappointing. But I think it's close to the original location.)

I made some personal history, too - it was my first time in a gay bar. It's not that I avoided them, I've just never been a big bar-hopper and I never had the opportunity, never had any friends take me to one.

Inside, it's a pretty ordinary place - subdued lighting, a pool table, rainbow-colored decorations hanging from the ceiling. It wasn't crowded on a Thursday afternoon - some men sitting at the bar. I thought about what it must have been like 40 years earlier and how the men in the bar that night could have been my friends, people I love.

I walked around, looking at historic photos and newspaper clippings on the walls, including one from a New York City paper the Sunday after the incident that made Stonewall famous, with the unbelievable headline: "Homo nest raided, queen bees are stinging mad."

I know that raids like the one at Stonewall are far from history. In fact, Texas authorities raided a gay club in Forth Worth in June, on very anniversary of the Stonewall riots, sending one person to the hospital with a head injury.

Coincidentally, I visited Stonewall the same afternoon that President Obama was in New York, speaking to the 100th anniversary gathering of the NAACP. The president talked about how far we've come in dealing with prejudice and discrimination but noted that we're not there yet.

To his credit, he did mention the struggle by gay and lesbian Americans for equal rights. Although I wish the rhetoric would be backed up by action to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act and to push for passage of the Matthew Shepard Act that would authorize the Justice Department to investigate hate crimes based on sexual orientation.

The president also talked about how change in America comes from the people, including the four black college students who sat down at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 and refused to leave until they were served.

While that was an act of nonviolent resistance, being in Stonewall still reminded me of those fearless young men. Sometimes history is made in the most unlikely places, at times when ordinary people who have been discriminated against, oppressed or shut out decide that they've simply had enough.

Of course today, no one would deny that our rights as Americans should include the ability to have a cup of coffee at the lunch counter of our choice. It seems to me that those rights should also include sitting down in a bar and having a drink without fear.

In 1999, when Stonewall and the area around it were added to the National Register of Historic Places, Assistant Interior Secretary M. John Berry said:

''Let it forever be remembered that here -- on this spot -- men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire.''

Frank Rich on Stonewall

I truly admire the way New York Times columnist Frank Rich continually reminds us that this country's work on civil rights is not yet complete.

Last month, he took the Obama administration to task over its failure to push for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Today, he has a column on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and he's still holding the administration's feet to the fire.

(I love this line: "If the country needs any Defense of Marriage Act at this point, it would be to defend heterosexual marriage from the right-wing “family values” trinity of Sanford, Ensign and Vitter.")

Rich recalls how he was caught up in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s but never heard about the demonstrations that followed a police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969. Even if he had, he wonders whether he would have cared. After all, he didn't know anyone at his Ivy League university who was openly gay.

"It was typical of my generation, like others before and after, that the issue of gay civil rights wasn’t on our radar screen. Not least because gay people, fearful of harassment, violence and arrest, were often forced into the shadows."

I'm younger than Rich, but I've always been interested in the history of the 1960s, particularly the civil rights and antiwar movements. I read widely on those subjects when I was in college in the late '70s and early '80s. And I never remember reading anything about Stonewall. Like Rich, when I was in college, I didn't know anyone who was openly gay.

Well, things are, thankfully, different today. Frank Rich cares, and so do I.

My audience may not be as large as the Times' but I intend to keep writing, too. How could I not? How could I tell my friends who happen to be gay or lesbian - people I love and admire - that there are some rights they don't deserve, that our laws shouldn't protect them as much as they protect me, that they shouldn't be allowed to marry the person with whom they want to spend the rest of their life?

On Monday, Rich notes that President Obama will mark the Stonewall anniversary at the White House. And he repeats his disappointment in the administration, which I share. Congressional Democrats, too. I'm not letting you off the hook. Judging from this Times story, there's plenty of foot-dragging in the legislative branch.

One line in Rich's May column gave me pause, when he said that "changes aren’t coming as fast as many gay Americans would like." I noted that there are plenty of "straight Americans" who want equal rights extended to everyone in this country. It's important for our elected officials to know that this isn't a "gay issue."

Apparently, he's been reading my blog because this time, he gets my point:

"It’s a press cliché that “gay supporters” are disappointed with Obama, but we should all be. Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws."

"If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places."

Gay rights = human rights

This New York Times editorial is totally on the mark in taking the Obama administration to task for its downright offensive lack of commitment to equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans.

The Times criticizes a brief submitted by the Justice Department on a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in which government lawyers used hurtful and just plain wrongheaded language, comparing gay relationships to incest and adults marrying children.

Personally, I'm offended at having the committed relationships of my friends, of people I love, referred to in such a derogatory manner. As someone who voted for Mr. Obama, this is very disappointing and unacceptable.

The editorial quotes a letter to the president from Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign: “I cannot overstate the pain that we feel as human beings and as families when we read an argument, presented in federal court, implying that our own marriages have no more constitutional standing than incestuous ones.”

The Times notes that the president has a lot of pressing issues on his plate. But it urges the administration to work toward the repeal of DOMA and "don't ask, don't tell" and for a federal law banning employment discrimination. "Busy calendars and political expediency are no excuse for making one group of Americans wait any longer for equal rights."

The president won in a landslide. He has a huge mandate for change. He should use it. It's time for him to acknowledge that this is a civil-rights issue, a human-rights issue, a measure of how committed we are as Americans to equal rights for everyone.

It's time for a Lyndon Johnson moment: this is not a "gay" issue, it's an American issue.

Back from New York

Back from my whirlwind, exhausting but exhilarating four days in New York City. Great shows, great friends, great sightseeing - the Triple Crown of vacations.

Okay, the reviews will come soon but first a few observations:

Big congratulations to Steve Loucks, better known by his nom de blog, Steve on Broadway, for being quoted in The Wall Street Journal's weekend edition for a story on theatre etiquette (or lack thereof). I'm so proud and so thrilled when a dear friend and fellow blogger is recognized. As usual, SOB was eloquent and right on the mark with his observation. Well done!

Speaking of etiquette, there were two disturbing things to report at Exit the King.

First, I heard some patrons who were sitting in the last row of the orchestra complaining at intermission that they could hear people talking behind them during the show. Please, remember that while you may be standing outside the auditorium, the people inside can hear you! Take your conversation outside to the lobby or downstairs to the lounge.

Also, at the beginning of the show, an usher kept walking up and down the aisle in the orchestra, stopping at a row near the front. One couple got up and left, so I thought that was the end of it but it went on for about 10 more minutes. At one point, he seemed to pass a note to someone. Finally, he threw his hands up in a gesture of exasperation and walked out.

If it was an emergency, I totally understand. But in that case, perhaps they should have stopped the play?

I've been to Studio 54 three times now, but Waiting for Godot was the first play I've seen there, the first Saturday matinee and the first time I'd heard the rumbling of the subway trains under my feet. It was quite noticeable throughout the show and at first, I thought it was a sound effect.

And Roundabout, you really should discount the last two seats on the far right and far left of every row in the orchestra. The sightlines weren't too bad for Godot, but c'mon. It's not fair.

It was so exciting to see Neil Patrick Harris going in the stage door after Godot. People were asking for his autograph and pictures. He said he would oblige when he came out. And I'm happy to report that he's a man of his word. Even though he probably had a million Tony-hosting related things to do, NPH very graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures. Very cute and very classy.

Also, I had a nice chat with Ernie Hudson, from Joe Turner's Come and Gone (and Ghost Busters!) about how exciting it was to have President and Mrs. Obama at the Belasco Theatre the previous week. It's too bad security concerns prevented the cast from meeting the first couple. Wouldn't it be great if someone connected with the Lincoln Center Theater who has some pull could wrangle an invitation to the White House?

While I was waiting for the final cast member to come out and sign my Playbill (soon-to-be Tony winner Roger Robinson!) I noticed a little handmade sign taped to the wrought-iron gate leading to the Belasco stage door christening it "The President Obama Entrance."

Let's hope The Shubert Organization, which owns the Belasco, makes it permanent with a plaque commemorating the visit of the nation's first African-American president. What a wonderful counterpoint to the entrance on the other side of the main doors, which black theatergoers were once forced to use to get to their seats in the segregated balcony.

Obamas do dinner and a Broadway show

Now isn't this sweet:

“I am taking my wife to New York City,” the president said in the statement, “because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.”

President and Mrs. Obama are in New York City tonight, where they dined at a restaurant called Blue Hill in Greenwich Village, then traveled to Times Square to take in the 8 p.m. performance of Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Broadway's Belasco Theatre.

How cool is it that of all things, Michelle Obama wanted her husband to promise to take her to a Broadway show after the campaign?! Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.

Of course, there are some naysayers:

"While the Obamas’ visit to New York was considered private, there was some very public criticism of the trip. The Republican National Committee suggested that that the outing was inappropriate and that Mr. Obama was out of touch, especially given the looming bankruptcy of General Motors.

The committee issued a press release on Saturday afternoon that read, “Putting on a show: Obamas wing it into the city for an evening out, while another iconic American company prepares for bankruptcy.”

Oh puh-leeze!

I think the president and first lady are doing more for the economy by traveling to New York City for dinner and a show than they would hunkering down in the White House. They're supporting tourism and the arts, both of which employ a lot of people. And they're drawing attention to the work of August Wilson - a great American playwright.

Besides, what is he supposed to do tonight to prevent General Motors from declaring bankruptcy - require that every American go to their nearest GM dealer Monday morning and buy a new car?

I know we're in a recession but I don't expect the president to walk around in a hair shirt. Isn't his example better than Vice President Joe Biden telling us all to be very afraid?

I'm just sorry that I have lousy timing. I'll be at Joe Turner next Saturday night - missing the first couple by exactly one week. Still, it'll be my first August Wilson play and I'm pretty excited about it - even without the president in the house.

Thank-you Frank

Frank Rich has a great column in the Sunday New York Times taking President Obama to task for his lack of courage in pushing for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act.

"Despite Barack Obama’s pledges as a candidate and president, there is no discernible movement on repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy or the Defense of Marriage Act. Both seem more cruelly discriminatory by the day."

He's absolutely correct. There's just one line in Rich's column that I'd quibble with: "And yet the changes aren’t coming as fast as many gay Americans would like, and as our Bill of Rights would demand."

It's not just "gay Americans" who want change to come faster - there are plenty of "straight Americans" who want equal rights extended to everyone in this country as soon as possible. Like, today.

Broadway is now playing at the palace

Sure, some eyebrows have been raised over the fact that President Obama gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod but I think it's an inspired gift.

I mean, how cool is it that he gave her something I'd like to receive? Also, what could be more American than musical theatre?

Finally, a British designer named Jonathan Ive played a major role in creating the iPod, which helped revive the sagging fortunes of Apple Computer. It's the greatest example of Anglo-American cooperation since Lend-Lease.

Here's a list of the songs. Apparently they were all taken from a CD called Ultimate Broadway. They're classics, featuring a mix of British and American performers, and I have almost all of them on my iPod. Okay, excuse me while I go create my very own royal playlist!

For the president, the show is never sold out

"It is a badly kept secret that every theatre around the world holds four tickets even after a show is sold out for the Pope or the President."
Gemma Mulvihill
Broadway in Chicago

Wow, I never knew the real purpose behind house seats. So, does the theatre manager have to call the White House (or the Vatican) a half hour before curtain time to make sure they won't be needed? (I know, I know, house tickets are used for other purposes, too, like when your seats get eaten up by an expanded stage and they need to put you somewhere.)

I read that in a blog post from Mulvihill, executive director of sales for Broadway in Chicago, who recounted some of the Obama family's theatergoing, which apparently wasn't extensive but they did go occasionally.

Then-Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended a performance of The Color Purple, in 2007. The couple have also been to Chicago's Goodman Theatre, to see Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow. Michelle Obama took Sasha and Malia to see Wicked and High School Musical. Here's some more on their cultural outings, from the Los Angeles Times.

Let's hope the Obamas take full advantage of those house seats. As Michael Kahn, artistic director of Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company, told the L.A. Times, "if the first family appreciates and participates in arts events, it’s something that is part of American life. It sends a good message that the arts count.”

Abraham Lincoln - arts lover

"Michelle and I are so pleased to be here to renew and rededicate this hallowed space. We know that Ford's Theatre will remain a place where Lincoln's legacy thrives, where his love of the humanities and belief in the power of education have a home, and where his generosity of spirit are reflected in all the work that takes place.

It has been a fitting tribute to Abraham Lincoln that we've seen and heard from some of our most celebrated icons of stage and screen. Because Lincoln himself was a great admirer of the arts. It is said he could even quote portions of Hamlet and Macbeth by heart. And so, I somehow think this event captured an essential part of the man whose life we celebrate tonight."

From President Obama's remarks last night at the rededication of Ford's Theatre

Fashion and other statements

Okay, it's morning in America and as a nation, we still have all of the challenges we had yesterday. But before the glow of yesterday's history-making inauguration wears off, permit me to make a couple more observations:

There's a great story in The New York Times about the interracial, interethnic and interfaith families of Barack and Michelle Robinson Obama. It's quite a mix! This line made me smile:

"Now the Obama-Robinson family’s move to the White House seems like a symbolic end point for the once-firm idea that people of different backgrounds should not date, marry or bear children."

And in a break from all the attention being focused on First Lady Michelle Obama's gown, President Obama, wearing "a white bow tie with a single-vent, notch-collar tuxedo and an American flag pinned to its lapel," looked mighty fine, too.

President Obama

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
President Barack Obama

What a dramatic day in American history. What struck me was his youth - and my age. For the first time, I'm older than the president of the United States. How did that happen?!

Okay, the big screen wasn't quite as big as I thought it would be, but it was still fun to watch the Inauguration in a theatre with a few thousand people. The place was pretty packed. An adorable group of preschoolers walked up the aisle each holding hands with a buddy.

We stood up and cheered at the first sight of Obama. We sat down when the announcer at the Capitol asked us to please take our seats. We applauded during his Inaugural Address. People hugged each other and took pictures. It was just like being there, only we were warmer and had a better view!

I agree with my friend Dan at Media Nation. While I want to listen to it again, I thought Obama's speech was pragmatic rather than soaring. It was very sobering. The emphasis was definitely on how the country is in crisis and the difficult road we have ahead of us as a nation. But we've been in tough situations before and we've persevered and we will once more.

Probably the best comment I've read so far was from former Nixon speechwriter William Gavin in The New York Times:

"The setting — the first African-American standing there in the bright winter sunshine as our new president — had an eloquence all its own. I think we will remember this occasion more for the man who gave it than for the words he said. He could have stood there for 20 minutes of silence and still communicated great things about America."

Still, there were some nice phrases in the speech:

"The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous."
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
"We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense."
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness."

Lots of work to do and I have confidence. But for today - President Barack Obama. Wow.

Inauguration Day

Historic is an overused term but not today.

This morning, I'll head over to the Providence Performing Arts Center to watch on a giant screen as 47-year-old Barack Hussein Obama take the oath of office to become the first African-American president of the United States.

I've been to one inauguration - Bill Clinton's first, in 1993. It's very exciting to be there and such an honor to see the leader of your country take the oath of office.

I was in the middle of a huge, festive crowd, probably the biggest I've ever been in. I remember it was a clear, cold day. My feet were freezing from standing in the same spot for hours. I still have the inaugural ticket that I got from my congressman but I don't remember that anyone ever checked it. I'm sure things will be much different today.

The Capitol looked beautiful and so timeless - gleaming white, decked out in red-white-and-blue bunting. Maya Angelou recited a poem. Marilyn Horne sang. I was hanging on every word of Clinton's address, trying to remember some line that would live in history. Sadly, it wasn't very memorable. I'm expecting better from Obama.

On NPR yesterday I heard an interview with Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of the civil-rights movement. Lewis talked about how when he was growing up in Alabama, black people could not register to vote. It is amazing how far we've come.

I'm thrilled that surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen will be in Washington for the inauguration. I was at a dinner once where one of these courageous black World War II veterans spoke and his story was truly inspiring. Members of the Little Rock Nine, who endured jeers and threats to integrate Central High School in 1957, will be there, too.

"The arc of the moral universe is long," Martin Luther King once said, "but it bends toward justice."

Rick Warren and dining with friends

As excited as I am about Barack Obama's inauguration, I have to say something about Rick Warren. When the pastor of California's Saddleback Church was picked to deliver the invocation, I followed the controversy that ensued and one thing he said bewildered me.

In an interview last month on the Web site Beliefnet, Warren said that he's against the redefinition of marriage to include gay and lesbian couples.

"I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."

Beliefnet's Steven Waldman asked him whether he thought those things were equivalent to gays getting married and Warren replied, "Oh, I do."

Then he added: "Most people know I have many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of Purpose Driven Life helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can't accuse me of homophobia."

Okay, this is what I don't understand:

How can you say that you have gay friends, you've eaten in their homes and yet, you compare gay and lesbian relationships to pedophilia, incest and polygamy? How can you go to someone's house, share a meal, consider them a friend and understand so little about who they are? Was there no conversation during dinner?

I guess Warren's comment bewilders me because it's the complete opposite of my experience dining with friends. Personally, I find that when I get to know people, I have greater empathy for them.

How could Warren have dinner with his gay friends and not understand that sexual orientation is something you're born with, that there's no gay lifestyle, that there are, as a friend of mine once said, "many shades of gay" and that gay people who are in loving, committed relationships with a spouse or partner are every bit as ordinary and yes, normal, as any heterosexual couple?

I'm fortunate to have friends with so many different stories, from so many different backgrounds. Eating together was one of the ways we got to know each other. We talked endlessly about our lives, about all the things you're not supposed to discuss - politics, religion, race. I miss those dinners so much.

Perhaps Warren can compartmentalize but I can't. I can't imagine listening to my friends discuss their dreams and struggles and experiences, hearing them talk about the person they love, laugh at their jokes and then refer to them in hateful, vile terms, viewing them as some kind of "other." I think about how much we have in common, how my friends deserve the same respect and rights that I enjoy.

I understand that Obama is trying to reach out to evangelicals and find common ground. And I certainly don't think he's antigay. But I have to agree with what Richard Cohen wrote in The Washington Post about Warren's selection:

"What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence. Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue -- the rights of gays to be treated equally -- as some sort of cranky cultural difference. "

In the end, it's more important what Barack Obama does than what Rick Warren says. Warren is entitled to his personal religious beliefs but as far as our country and its laws are concerned, I don't want my friends dehumanized, their rights abridged.

As president, I want Obama to reverse "Don't ask, don't tell," so that anyone who wants to serve their country can do so openly and proudly; I want him to work toward repealing the hurtful and discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act; and I want him to support passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, to strengthen hate-crimes laws.

We have come so far in this country. People talk about "the 5,000 year definition of marriage" as if it's immutable, as if it's never changed in any way - ever. But thankfully, the way we think about things changes all the time. And tomorrow is a perfect example.

Barack Obama will take the oath of office with his hand on the Bible that Abraham Lincoln used when he was sworn in by Chief Justice Roger Taney, who, in 1857, wrote that black people could not be citizens of any state "and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Different stories, common hopes

At the Lincoln Memorial yesterday Barack Obama said that as president, he'll bring with him to the Oval Office the voices of all the Americans he met on the campaign trail: " the voices of men and women who have different stories but hold common hopes."

Last year on Martin Luther King Day I wrote about Straight for Equality. I mentioned the many occasions on which Coretta Scott King spoke forcefully about the connection between the fight for equal rights for African-Americans and for gay and lesbian Americans.

Today, on Martin Luther King Day 2009, the day before the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States, her words are especially important to recall:

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people.... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”

Different stories, common hopes. Absolutely.

Secretary of the arts

Music producer and songwriter Quincy Jones said in November on the radio program Soundcheck that he'd like to see a Cabinet-level secretary of the arts.

In response, Jaime Austria, who plays bass for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, created an online petition supporting the idea. So far, it's garnered more than 71,000 signatures. (Thanks to the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster for the story.)

Personally, I'm wary of creating another layer of federal bureaucracy. Plus, we've already got a National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.

I guess they could be folded into a Cabinet-level department but I don't know what would be accomplished by that move. And in the current economic climate, a new department isn't likely to get any additional funding.

I don't know what, if anything, a Department of the Arts would mean for theatre. And honestly, I can't see this being a top priority for President-elect Barack Obama when he takes office next Tuesday.

But a lot of people who left comments on the petition are pretty passionate about it. They make good points about the importance of the arts in our society and in making sure children are exposed to them in school. I certainly agree with those sentiments.

Here's just one: "When financial times are tough, the arts seem to be one of the first areas in danger. But when times are tough, the arts lift our souls and give us hope. It seems to me this is a good idea and an important step."