On the Dawn of a New Day

What a week!

When I woke up this morning, it was with the knowledge that a new president was waking up, as well, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Along with his wife Michelle and their two little girls, Malia and Sasha, I imagine this little family is as perplexed by their reality as we all are by our recent choices. I imagine they are smiling and we are, too.

It is just two days post the January 20, 2009 inauguration and we – The United States of America – have a man in the White House upon whose shoulders we have placed all of our long beleaguered trust and expectations.

The task at hand for the newly elected and sworn in 44th president is of mammoth proportions. It is perhaps the worse that history has ever seen. At the very least, no other time recorded seems as challenging than that which we are living right now. A war rages on, security is a constant reality and fear, we have made enemies around the globe, we have faced betrayal in our own big businesses and our economy is threatening to bury us alive. Yet despite the Everest-sized climb ahead, President Barack Obama, seems poised for the challenge. He walked on to the podium for his swearing-in yesterday with the swagger, confidence and coolness of a man sure about his skills and his ability to lead. Not a hint of arrogance accompanied his presence, though a few folks around here described him as a smooth operator for his outwardly total lack of nerves or fear.

Obama’s speech was short and to the point because he is of this generation – we of the time constraints, multi-tasking existence who keep in touch with colleagues, family and friends alike via BlackBerrys, e-mails and texting. We who are all impatient to a degree and whose attention span is so narrow we can only hope to listen to and digest information in bits and bytes trying to filter out whatever we feel qualifies as spam.

There are many firsts in this administration. Obama is the first African-American president of the United States; a fact we have heard told and retold countless times. It will be the first time a black family will occupy the White House as anything other than staff. It is the first in quite some time that the nation was so beaten and battered from the former administration’s many faults and mistakes, that we collectively screamed for the change Obama promised, then we showed up to bear witness when our dreams for a shift in our existence became a reality.

I, for one, am thrilled at the prospects and possibilities of this man. I wait with reserved pride for what he can offer us on a national and global scale. It was high time that the White House of yesterdays gone by, with its Good Old Boys mentality, got a little bit of a shake up. We are not in a good place right now and it became painfully obvious that the old way was not the right way for us any longer.

So what lies ahead for the citizens of this nation? I believe there will be a lot of waiting, a lot of hoping, a lot of hand wringing, a lot of complaining and head shaking, and a lot of praying. Not all of the changes will be good, at least at the start. In fact, President Obama has already warned people not to expect overnight miracles. And who can blame him for preparing us in the semi-negative way? After all, it took eight long, arduous years to screw us over to this extent. Can we at least give the man two to try to sit us back upright again?

Still, despite all of the foreboding predictions, I remain happy and hopeful now. I have a new found sense of safety and well-being. I have a new sense of pride of my country, I’d long ago forgotten. I believe that with him at the reigns, we will be looked upon by our earthly neighbors with a certain level of respect and admiration again. I believe we can rebuild the bridges burned by the last administration and come bearing an olive branch to those whom we have hurt and those who have misunderstood our intentions. I believe that we can return to the days when we offered countries plagued by war, famine or natural disaster the kind of peace building help they need without fear of reproach or attack.

These things must be possible; otherwise there would be no point to our continued place as a super power among nations. If we cannot change the ways in which we have conducted ourselves historically - taking greedily, going to war on false reasons and half-truths, killing to fuel our insatiable need for oil – then the lessons not learned served no purpose whatever.

Now is the time to change because we have been on the same path of destruction for too long. And while destruction of our lives and way of life has not come to pass, it certainly has come as close as any of us ever want to see again. So yes, we have placed a great burden on this new president. We have placed all manner of expectation on him. We are cashing in on our support and votes. We are pushing him to succeed because, at this point, failure is just not an option.

I want to imagine that the history of Barack Obama’s administration will be written with a kind pen and a content community of citizens. I want to imagine it to be this chapter of possibilities fulfilled, change enacted and positive outcomes produced. I want to be able to look back to the days of his White House and say we made the right decision at the right time and we are the better for it, every last one of us. I want to look back, along with everyone else, and say: “Wow! We sure got out of that mess!”

How ever the end of his presidency is written, let’s concentrate on the here and now. His presidency is in its infancy. There is still time for him to crawl, then walk and then run. Let's not start out by hindering his actions with our comments. Let's not put him under a white hot light and criticize every little mishap he may encounter, or every little mistake he may make. We must understand that there is a bigger picture he is aiming to paint and we can't let him do his job, if all we do is try to knock him down further, each time he falls. Let's not tear him apart in our homes and, especially, in our blood thirsty media. Let's give him a chance to prove to those of us who believed in him, that we were right to elect him. Let's give those who did not believe in him a chance to change their minds.

In the meantime, let’s send him all of our positive thoughts and encouragement. Let’s trust him to grow into his new post. Let’s make sure to take care to be our best to help him do his best. Let’s understand that we got ourselves into this mess, as much as we may want to blame his predecessor. And last, let’s become united once more, so that we can live up to our promises as a nation and as a people, just as Barack Obama would like us to be.