Obama's Inauguration

Like most people I spent today in front of the telly watching events unfold in Washington. I was impressed - with the huge crowds, the pomp and circumstance mixed with informality and with the new president himself. His inaugural speech was exactly what people needed to hear, blunt but full of hope. I'm three quarters of the way through Obama's first book, "Dreams from My Father", and feel that I know a little about him and what makes him tick. Reading the book I was struck by the utter and complete contrast between him and Bush - here we have an educated, intelligent and compassionate man with I hope the strength to do his job the way he wants to do it, whereas in Bush......well you all know what he was like.
There was one thing that marred the proceedings though. This was having an "invocation" given by a religious gentleman. As an atheist I found it offensive - not of course that it is any of my business, not being an American. But had I been an American, I would have found it annoying. First of all, the man was a christian, and christianity is not the only religion in the USA. Secondly one of the new president's aims is to promote unity in the country, and I suspect that to many this was divisive. But maybe not. Americans seem by their very nature to be religious people, one people under god etc, so perhaps they just accepted this. Nevertheless about 15 percent of the US population are atheists and have to put up with a lot of discrimination as a result. Their voices need to be heard too.