Changing Keys: The Next Four Years

http://averypoliticalwoman.com/?p=185

It’s hard for me to say anything that hasn’t been said more articulately about the Obama inauguration. It’s especially hard to top this post or this post. But I can give my own perspective.

All I’ve been able to think about for the past four days is how refreshing it is to have a president who is truly interested in not only the nitty-gritty policy details, but who is a well-spoken, respected and reasonable person. Hearing the media say “President Obama,” is like walking down the stairs on Christmas morning over and over again–it never gets old and it always sends a tingle through my body.

Perhaps it’s my ardent opposition to almost everything George W. Bush has stood for since he first started applying for the job of President. Day after day, week after week, ignorant gaffe after ignorant gaffe, W made looking and sounding stupid a new art form. From his horrific failure of an educational policy with No Child Left Behind to his tragic and heart-stopping “Mission Accomplished” photo-op, life over the past eight years has been a constant state of cringing in horror of what could possibly happen next.

Like a dog that’s been beat too much, America is starting to stretch its legs from the position of recoiled horror that it assumed over the past eight years. It’s not going to happen overnight, nor will it happen in the first 100, 200 or 400 days. This is the type of trauma that takes years, and usually a lot of therapy to overcome. It will not happen overnight. Our leader has consistently broken our trust (what little we gave him in the first place) and the world has begun to look at us like the monsters we’ve become. Instead of striving for what is just and right, we’ve become complacent and content with anything less than a complete failure.

When Obama was sworn in that image did not get erased. We haven’t been forgiven for our sins and like the child of a convict, we must work to make our image and our name right in the world again. Obama’s election is a signal that we’re ready to do that, but it can’t be the only signal we send.

In the coming years we must reject the status quo and move forward with the other first world nations to truly embrace human rights in every form. We must recognize the rights of the worker in relationship to her employer. We must recognize the right to health care for each woman, man and child. We must recognize the freedom of choice to reproduce or not reproduce when and how we see fit. We must justify our complacency in allowing the rule of law to be slowly, but steadily, dissolved. We must apologize for our international mistakes and work to make the world a peaceful place that operates on the currency of diplomacy, rather than the bribes of violence. As Billy Joel said, “we didn’t start the fire/no we didn’t light it/but we tried to fight it.” Now is our time to fight.

In other words, we must change our own expectations of ourselves.

Barack Obama is an apt, ready and dynamic leader whose time has come. But his leadership will be nothing if we, as a nation, chose not to right the wrongs that we have allowed to happen. Bush may have been a horrific leader, but to move forward we must acknowledge our role in his musical of horrors. The best way of doing that is moving forward to support policies that push America forward as a true leader once again, working in the light of day.

The 44th President is only as strong as the society that stands behind him. Now, more than ever, America needs to change its tune and play fair. Hope springs eternal, but hard work stands between us and true freedom.