Is That Really Change?
This feels odd. It feels strange. It doesn't seem right.
The country is alive...again and in just nine short hours, the United States of America will have a new President, the 44th.
First, I'd like to preface this by saying that of course I am excited. I am probably overwhelmed, and this is probably the reason why I am thinking the way that I am thinking. I thought I'd never see the country like this, excited for someone to be President of the United States. It doesn't matter what a person's reason is for being excited that by 12:01 on the East Coast and at 9:01 in the morning where I live, Barack Obama will be the President. It doesn't matter where the excitement comes from--whether someone is excited because Obama is black, or represents true change, or smokes, or owns a Blackberry--none of that matters.
What matters is that the country is excited. And I'm excited. I can't wait to get up in a couple of hours and watch and read all the bullshit stories about White House movers, Dick Cheney in a wheel chair and how long it took for Michelle Obama to pick her dress. I will wake up, watch it and eat it all up.
So, if at any point, after this sentence, I don't seem excited, trust me, I am. I'm just being neurotic.
My excitement is definitely tempered and I believe that the excitement everyone else feels should also be tempered. I am wholly conifdent that Obama can lead us through our nation's toughest of challenges. But do not dare, for one second, believe that at 12:01 tomorrow, everything will be different. That after Obama says "so help me god" that the heavens will open, all the angels will ring out in chorus and that Change automatically and spontaneously happens in America.
Of course, that's hyperbole, but do not expect Obama to be perfect in any way, Do not believe that he can fix everything, because he can't. Do not believe that he is infalliable, because he isn't the Pope.
What is sobering my exciement for Obama is partially the fact that he is still only a politician, and in my book, all politicians (save one fictional character) are flawed in every shape and form. And second, Obama's presidency begins in what couldn't be a shittier time in America. Two wars. Economic crises. A warming globe. A rival growing in stature and power by the day. Who can really face these problems and solve all these ills?
And what about our great expectations? The media, this weekend, has been linking Obama's moment in time similar to the ones that Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt faced when they took the office of the presidency. Two great presidents. Probably the greatest of all time.
But what about those who compared Obama to the Kennedys during the election? The last time, there was this much excitment, surrounding the candidacy of an individual for President, he was left for dead in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968. Bobby Kennedy never got the chance to succeed or fail in leading this country from its higest office. His brother, John, did though. And while history has been kind to John Kennedy, a closer examination shows us that the three years he was in office, he failed more often than he succeeded.
Sure the Kennedys inspired a generation, but their legacy can be tainted by failure. One failed to keep the country out of Vietnam. The other, though he didn't fail us directly, failed to even make it to Election Day.
Should which path will Obama follow? Will he succeed in getting the country through the greatest of crises? Or will he fail and with that failure, stamp out the last hope and vestiges in having a true democracy in this country?
Tomorrow should be exciting. It will be exciting. This moment has been in the making for 200 years. It has been prophesized for over 40 years.
Obama fufills a dream that has been long overdue.
But let's also remember that Obama ain't superman and that he doesn't hold the magic key to all of our problems.
Things will be better. But they won't be perfect. We can only hope.
The country is alive...again and in just nine short hours, the United States of America will have a new President, the 44th.
First, I'd like to preface this by saying that of course I am excited. I am probably overwhelmed, and this is probably the reason why I am thinking the way that I am thinking. I thought I'd never see the country like this, excited for someone to be President of the United States. It doesn't matter what a person's reason is for being excited that by 12:01 on the East Coast and at 9:01 in the morning where I live, Barack Obama will be the President. It doesn't matter where the excitement comes from--whether someone is excited because Obama is black, or represents true change, or smokes, or owns a Blackberry--none of that matters.
What matters is that the country is excited. And I'm excited. I can't wait to get up in a couple of hours and watch and read all the bullshit stories about White House movers, Dick Cheney in a wheel chair and how long it took for Michelle Obama to pick her dress. I will wake up, watch it and eat it all up.
So, if at any point, after this sentence, I don't seem excited, trust me, I am. I'm just being neurotic.
My excitement is definitely tempered and I believe that the excitement everyone else feels should also be tempered. I am wholly conifdent that Obama can lead us through our nation's toughest of challenges. But do not dare, for one second, believe that at 12:01 tomorrow, everything will be different. That after Obama says "so help me god" that the heavens will open, all the angels will ring out in chorus and that Change automatically and spontaneously happens in America.
Of course, that's hyperbole, but do not expect Obama to be perfect in any way, Do not believe that he can fix everything, because he can't. Do not believe that he is infalliable, because he isn't the Pope.
What is sobering my exciement for Obama is partially the fact that he is still only a politician, and in my book, all politicians (save one fictional character) are flawed in every shape and form. And second, Obama's presidency begins in what couldn't be a shittier time in America. Two wars. Economic crises. A warming globe. A rival growing in stature and power by the day. Who can really face these problems and solve all these ills?
And what about our great expectations? The media, this weekend, has been linking Obama's moment in time similar to the ones that Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt faced when they took the office of the presidency. Two great presidents. Probably the greatest of all time.
But what about those who compared Obama to the Kennedys during the election? The last time, there was this much excitment, surrounding the candidacy of an individual for President, he was left for dead in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968. Bobby Kennedy never got the chance to succeed or fail in leading this country from its higest office. His brother, John, did though. And while history has been kind to John Kennedy, a closer examination shows us that the three years he was in office, he failed more often than he succeeded.
Sure the Kennedys inspired a generation, but their legacy can be tainted by failure. One failed to keep the country out of Vietnam. The other, though he didn't fail us directly, failed to even make it to Election Day.
Should which path will Obama follow? Will he succeed in getting the country through the greatest of crises? Or will he fail and with that failure, stamp out the last hope and vestiges in having a true democracy in this country?
Tomorrow should be exciting. It will be exciting. This moment has been in the making for 200 years. It has been prophesized for over 40 years.
Obama fufills a dream that has been long overdue.
But let's also remember that Obama ain't superman and that he doesn't hold the magic key to all of our problems.
Things will be better. But they won't be perfect. We can only hope.