Much ado about an inauguration

The controversy over Barack Obama’s designation of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 reminds me of an early episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

In that flight of Rod Serling’s fancy, titled “Mr. Dingle the Strong,” a weakling (played by Burgess Meredith) who is tired of being bullied encounters some extraterrestrials who bestow upon him incredible strength as an experiment in human behavior. The idea is that the bullies will now leave him alone, but Dingle becomes so enamored with his newfound might that he turns into a bully himself — whereupon the extraterrestrials pull the plug on his power.

Similarly, the same people who complained that George W. Bush’s last two administrations were stocked mainly with conservative Republicans now seem to want Obama to do the same thing, albeit in reverse.

As Obama himself kept saying during his campaign: “They just don’t get it.”

OK, Rick Warren is against abortion and gay rights. So are a lot of other Americans. The author of “The Purpose-Driven Life” has sold millions of copies of his books, so somebody must agree with him.

Anyway, it’s not as if Obama is choosing Warren as his Secretary of State. The deliverance of the invocation is only a symbolic moment in an inauguration, so why not give conservative Christians a seat at the table, since Obama promised in his acceptance speech to be “the president of all Americans.”

That doesn’t mean he has to agree with all of them, or vice versa. And interestingly, Warren is getting an earful from parts of his constituency for agreeing to do the inaugural gig.

Meanwhile, the new President hasn’t taken office yet officially, but he’s already taking heat. How could he appoint Hillary Clinton to his cabinet, when they disagreed so fundamentally on the Iraq War? How could he allow hawks to infiltrate his defense department?

When you think about it, though, most of the great fiascos in human history have taken place because the leader of a country was surrounded by sycophants who were afraid to disagree with him.

Example: All of Saddam Hussein’s “advisers” who assured him (no doubt because they feared for their lives) that the Iraqi army would have no problem winning the Gulf War.

What could be healthier than to gather different opinions and hammer out a consensus? We don’t know yet what kind of president Barack Obama will make, but at least he seems to be following through with a pledge to change the way politics is conducted. The glorified patronage system that has held sway for generations may be at an end, and that’s a good thing.

Many of us have a tendency to reject everything a person believes and espouses because we disagree with one part of it. To me, the best metaphor for a fair and functional America is the extended family. Within such a family, at its best, members support each other despite their disagreements because they have a common cause.

Let Rick Warren have his say, however brief, on Jan. 20. Right after him on the program comes Aretha Franklin.