History moved tonight.  It is not given us to feel many such moments in our lives.  The assassination of John F. Kennedy, Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon, the fall of South African Apartheid are some of the ones that have touched me.
Tonight I watched Barack Obama give his victory speech and I felt something I haven’t felt in some time – hope.  And I was deeply moved.
The world has been moving into darker and darker spaces for some time now. Â Profits over people, production over conservation, greed over common sense. Â A parade of stupidity to take your breath away and to make you fear for all of our futures.
I think this man sees all of that and sincerely wants to deal with it.  And he has secured the most powerful office in the world to work from.  The fact that he’s won?  It’s not the answer, it’s not the solution, and it’s not necessarily the way out of the mess we’re in.  But it is the best thing that could have happened at this time in history.
I pray that the desire for change that elected Obama President will begin to loosen the grip that materialism, short-sightedness, greed, fundamentalism and disrespect for nature have had on the United States.
We’ve dug ourselves into a very deep hole with respect to our economy and with respect to the environment. And it will take a very large amount of effort and focus to dig our way out again.  But at least someone I can believe in seems to have stepped up to the plate.
God’s speed, Barack Obama.
Tags: Barack Obama
You stated it perfectly, as usual. 🙂
I’ve read more than 2 dozen books on the Depression so I deeply understand the power of hope in a people; however, it also is starkly evident that it is not any man at the helm that can save this country from the path it is speeding down, but the people who the man works for. We as a society must look to ourselves for blame for where we stand on our course — we, who are looking for the next giveaway check, expecting our health care to be free and our government to provide for us with social security checks. No, responsibility lies with the person staring back at us in our mirror, my fellow citizens.
If President-elect Obama is to truly do what is necessary to stem the approaching storms that will crush us, he must do exactly what Americans would vehemently protest with respect to our addiction to entitlements. The next drug fix will not last as long, and soon, Americans will ask for more checks with both their hands held out.
I don’t know too many people in my personal life who work three jobs like my mother did to feed and house her family and extended family and who NEVER expected any handouts from the government. And I certainly have not met anyone who lives as modestly as we did under her household. To this day, people who know us are amazed when I tell them my husband and I have never purchased furniture or dishes, except for one single couch (was a great sale), have never purchased anything, including a car or house unless outright with cash, that we have no debt, do not watch or own a TV, that we have not eaten out in years, among other things. Granted we have ugly, mismatched furniture which others trashed, that our home is sparsely furnished, that our dishes are chipped slightly but not dangerous, that our forks and spoons are bent, that our towels are frayed, worn and thin; yet we have in savings more than we ever will need to retire and more than we will ever need if we had to pay for our medical expenses outright, even if we had long-term medical needs. We will never need handout social security checks even though we paid toward those checks during our lives.
I do not find it acceptable that I daily hear people complain all around me about their personal situations and how it is always someone else’s fault for where they are. We have grown to be a country full of whiners.
During the depression, men lined up for hours hoping they could have the privilege to work for pay for the single day so they could buy bread to feed their families for that day. They didn’t demand that the perks be competitive… Today, it saddens me when I daily see employees I encounter who try to mind as much of their personal matters as they can during the time they are supposed to be working for their employers. For almost 2 years I tried to get our HR to fire one of my secretaries who would spend her days watching videos, surf the net and who would disappear for an hour at a time to sleep in the bathroom stalls during work. Finally, HR was so tired of my complaints and submitted documentation of my talks with her that they moved her to another floor. The secretary told me that she had never met anyone so demanding as I was. Unbelievable. Where is the work ethic and are we willing to brace up and accept the work and the times ahead of us in order to change our situation? This is a change that requires us to all act and suck it up – a change that requires a kind of hard work that most of us don’t know of which is beyond mere words from a great orator.
So I chime in with you in wishing all of us as well, God’s speed.
Yes, if we were all as responsible, it would be a far better world.