President Obama Inauguration, American Unity and Software
President Obama’s inauguration speech finished a few minutes ago, and while I do not like to interject politics into my public writing, I would like to share a few thoughts on American unity, race and progress. President Obama’s message was entirely devoid of blame or rancor, either in the political sense of the last eight years or in the subtext of progress in race relations in the United States.
The message as I heard it was – don’t look back, lets step forward together. As an African-American, he didn’t negate the history of African Americans in the United States, nor did he set aside the history that some associate only with white America. What I heard was a harmonized blending, as multi-cultural and multi-racial as the man himself. It is the message of the melting pot of America, at least the positive message as I heard it in my childhood. To me, the melting pot was never about a watering down or chaotic blending of otherwise conflicting values and experiences, but allowing the very best to come together without being subordinated or negated.
Does this have anything to do with software? Sure it does. The American culture and value of open dialog and negotiation and the value placed on personal competitiveness and creativity, combined with a government that allows the easy formation of new business is why America continues to be the birthplace of great software. It isn’t that great software cannot come from someplace else; the American experience nurtures great software because it nurtures the perfect blend of innovation.
