Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
played out the way they did. Obama’s Inaugural address - words like “brilliant” and “inspiring” are not fully adequate. Now we all know he cannot wave a magic wand and solve all of our nation's problems. But he gave us something - hope. That we can overcome the problems we are facing, just like we have in the past. Franklin D. Roosevelt did that in his first Inaugural address. And who can forget how John F. Kennedy inspired us with his address, his call to “get America moving again?”
His statement that “we are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus-and nonbelievers” strikes a welcome chord. How nice to have a president who will not pander to the Religious Right, to the ilk of Pat Robertson and James Dobson.
I understand that has not sat well with some. Neither did Thomas Jefferson when he was elected - a man who was considered a heretic or infidel by the “Religious Right” of his day. A song, “Jefferson and Liberty” appeared after his election with the line “no bigots with their holy laws will drench the streets and fields with blood.” Jefferson lived at a time when memories of this were fresh in the lives of many. There were Huguenots right here in Virginia whose ancestors had died in the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s night and the aftermath. And for that matter the Quakers hanged in Massachusetts Colony because the Puritan fathers did not consider them “genuine” Christians- a term I was dismayed to see used in a letter to the Rappahannock News in the Jan. 15 edition.
One of Jefferson’s accomplishments that he was most proud of was authoring the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. I would not be surprised at all if President Obama is familiar with some of Jefferson’s writings on the subject.
89.5%