Obama Rules!
OK I have to admit I’ve been swept up in the whole Obama inauguration event. I woke up in a cold sweat last night chanting “yes we can … yes we can”. You must admit the excitement is infectious and the expectation is high. Reality will not hit home until tomorrow, after all the partying and celebrating is over and President Obama has held his first day of economic strategy sessions to determine how bad the state of the nation really is. I have high expectations but I also have hope that those expectations have a chance of being met – an interview with a young African American at the inauguration where he said that ‘one man cannot make change happen, but if that man can get you and I to buy into his vision and get you to help with the change, then there is real hope’. That is change that you can believe in, where the people are not just giving the keys to the new guy and saying “best of luck … impress us”. There is an attitude of realism and hope that if we all pull together in the same direction, yes we can make things better.
In my 50 years I have watched many US inaugurations but I have never felt moved the way I did today watching President Obama get sworn in. I laughed – I cried. People all over the globe are celebrating and have renewed hope that the US will be able to do great things. I have a few vivid recollections from when I was very young, watching CBC television and seeing Dr. Martin Luther King give his “I have a dream” speech. I also remember seeing Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, and witnessing the tragedy unfold when John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis and Robert Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles. Part of me is tired of hearing the President of the United States of America referred to as the leader of the free world, but another part of me is cheering Obama on to greatness and praying that he is given the opportunity to achieve even a fraction of the great expectation his nation has for him.