New Day

photo courtesy of magpie-girl.com

Happy Inauguration Day!!!!

(Okay, I know this is now late, but I promise you I wrote this on the day...)

I was excited, amazed and grateful to be able to sit down with my co-workers this afternoon to watch Barak Obama be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. It was neat to be able to think of telling future generations that I remember exactly where I was on this historic day.

I loved the speech because it highlighted for me some things that I have always appreciated about Obama's platform. For one thing, I think that he is able to recognize things that are bad. That sounds small, but I feel like the general tenor of politics has been to deny that there are problems, to deny that they themselves have had any part in them, to just reassure people that everything's fine. I felt like he did a good job stressing the difficulties of the present situation, the darkness of the days. But most impressively, I think he stressed the personal implications for all of his listeners, for all of America. I think it was when he was talking about the economy, there was one moment in particular when he was like, you, regular, work-a-day Americans, also helped to cause this. And the environment thing, yeah, that was you too. But then he also was able to call people to participate in the solution, to work together and not just rely on the work of those at the top. Yay for taking responsibility for our country!

I also loved the way he called the United States, as well as all of the more developed nations of the world, to take a more circumspect look at our stewardship, the way we relate to smaller, poorer countries, and how we can partner with, rather than exploit them. I love the stress placed on social justice as a national and international commitment, not just the concern of hippies and liberal freaks.

But the other thing that I was impressed with today, not so much from the news coverage, but rather in spite of it, is that Obama cannot solve all of our problems. In some ways, I feel that expectations for his term are impossibly high, that he can't possibly live up to all that's expected of him. I'm okay with that. He is the president, and that's damn important, but at the end of the day, he has four years, or possibly eight, to make changes and get results. We simply can't expect that now that "evil Bush" is out of office and Obama is in, the clouds will part, the sun will shine, the birds will sing, and daisies will pop out of the snow and dance (for the record, I am so tired of all the Bush-bashing that has gone on lately. Six months of being forced to listen to liberal radio will do that to you. Cut the guy a break, for crying out loud!) He is only one person. I think my greatest hope for him is that he seems to realize that, and therefore tries to get everyone on board to better the nation. Really, one person can do so little, but if all of us do our best to help this country thrive? That would be amazing. Look at that...I think I must be becoming patriotic at last...

Here's hoping you share my sense of joy and hope today and that your prayers are with our new leader.