View a special report on the inauguration of Barack Obama including:
PLATTSBURGH — The Rev. Frederick Shaw sees the moment Barack Obama takes office as a huge opportunity.
"To me, it signals the opening of a door where all kinds of things can happen," said the pastor of United Church of Christ in Elizabethtown and First Congregational Church in Lewis.
"The next president could be a woman or a Native American or really any person who aspires. It has always been the promise of America."
And is the historic inauguration a promise fulfilled?
"Yes," Shaw said, "I think so. Once the American public sees that, yes, we made it really happen this time, they might be more willing to actually make changes happen, instead of just being open to them."
He hopes the promise of freedom for all people will open a door for peace.
HERITAGE
North Americans from diverse cultures expressed different elements of optimism for the coming inauguration of Obama, tempered as it is by harsh economic pressures and instability in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Nell Irvin Painter and President Barack Obama both earned their advanced degrees at Harvard.
Painter is eager to see how Obama's presidency will unfurl historically.
"My first thought was that the narrative here, is this a culmination of the civil-rights movement and African-American history?" said Painter, who is professor of American history emerita at Princeton University and a North Country resident.
"That is really interesting, our ideas about race. Is it biological? Is it something in your blood that you get from your parents and you pass it down generation to generation? Is Obama on the biological end of this history? Biologically, Obama is not related to this history."
Painter points out that the 44th U.S. president had an East-African immigrant father and a European-American mother, with English, Irish and possible Native-American ancestry.
"This, to me, shows how race is an idea; it's not biological. I think all Americans should celebrate Obama's election. He's intelligent. He's serious and grounded."
NEW OPTIMISM
U.S. foreign relations for the past eight years has been an absolute disaster, in Painter's estimation.
"As an American, I am greatly relieved (about Obama's election).
"I am here (California) in a senior citizens' home with my parents. The vast majority are white. What I'm hearing from these people is they lived through the Great Depression. They say, 'Things will get better when Obama becomes president. We will be less fearful.'
"The people's expectations will lift when Obama becomes president. The economy will improve because people feel more optimistic."
NATIVE PERSPECTIVE
In Onchiota, Mohawk artist and writer John Fadden said word of the new president's approach had been felt in Alberta, Canada, where Obama's aides had spoken directly with Native people about impacts to their land.
"Whether Obama will do anything about living up to all the treaties, we'll see," Fadden said.
Elements of the U.S. Constitution were influenced and inspired by the earlier Haudenosaunee Constitution, called Kaianerekowa, "The Great Law of Peace," he noted.
Fadden sees hope in the new president.
"Yes, just in the way Obama carries himself. As for the promise of change, it's just really too early to tell."
St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council Chief Monica Jacobs said this is a very historic time.
"We are all really excited to be going (to Washington) and to have this opportunity.
"He is already working to align his people to own up to the campaign promises he made to Native Country. He is the first one who even mentioned Native people on the campaign trail."
She said the new president will be asked for more local aid for health and educational services on all Indian lands and, particularly at Akwesasne, for more attention from the U.S. Office of Homeland Security.
"The Haudenosaunee have a seat in the U.N. (United Nations), yet Congress won't recognize a Haudenosaunee passport," Jacobs said. "We are a nation."
WORLD VIEW
Morrisonville resident Xu Xi finds it a plus to have a peripatetic president.
"You feel like he can talk to the leaders of other countries of the world and stand on equal footing with them," said Xu Xi, who is on the faculty of Vermont College of Fine Arts and is distinguished visiting writer at the University of Iowa's nonfiction program.
The Chinese-Indonesian native of Hong Kong said some snobby British and Chinese friends were astonished by Obama's success.
"He's concerned about a lot of domestic issues that matter to people here and at the same time recognizes how powerful a country we are and how this power should be used judiciously, as well, in the world," Xu Xi said.
In Africa, there is incredible excitement for Obama. Kenya, the nation of Obama's paternal ancestry, cannot contain itself.
"Everybody feels closer," said Portia Alley Turco, a South African native and Essex resident. "Obama is really able to connect the world. Truly, there is no difference anymore. Of course, with South Africa, you know of our historical apartheid and having our first black president, as well.
"What happened in the '60s with the civil-rights movement, this is the culmination of it for you. For us, Nelson Mandela was it. To believe that it is possible, that's huge. Nobody thought this was possible in their lifetime."
EXPECTATIONS
Raghida Dergham, an Al Hayat columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent, was in the field when Obama gave his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention.
"When Barack Obama was nominated for the presidency, I felt the impact of history," said Dergham, who has familial ties to the North Country.
"I felt all of what was to be expected by the world and from the United States led by this very special man. I fear that the expectation may be a bit too much."
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