Hail to the Chief
I LOVE that news reporters are having trouble remembering to call him President ELECT Obama. Soon it will not matter.
Eight years ago I drove to work one morning with a heavy heart. I saw the 2000 election as a huge failure of democracy and reason. As we tried to determine who had won the highest office on the planet I saw two paths. One path lead to Gore as a steward of our country in the same way that Clinton was. I disliked Clinton. I disagreed with him deeply on many, many issues. Yet in the end I felt like he did a good job of balancing views and acting reasonably. On the other path I saw a madman whom I feared would push us into a world-wide religious conflict. I saw a man who had humiliated and depressed Texas. I saw a man who had destroyed public education, and who could not himself speak in American English.
It breaks my heart that my worst fears on that grey morning were actually prescient. These last eight years have hurt deeply, and not just because I didn't vote for the men in power. I believe that history will recall President Bush in harsher tones than we recall Nixon today.
Obama will not fix the world. He will not represent all of my values. He will not even address some of the most urgent issues of the day. Yet on this morning we have a president who was voted for by the majority of the population of the US. We have a man who is dedicated to healing our country and working to address views on both sides of issues. We have no God, but we finally have a man.
Eight years ago I drove to work one morning with a heavy heart. I saw the 2000 election as a huge failure of democracy and reason. As we tried to determine who had won the highest office on the planet I saw two paths. One path lead to Gore as a steward of our country in the same way that Clinton was. I disliked Clinton. I disagreed with him deeply on many, many issues. Yet in the end I felt like he did a good job of balancing views and acting reasonably. On the other path I saw a madman whom I feared would push us into a world-wide religious conflict. I saw a man who had humiliated and depressed Texas. I saw a man who had destroyed public education, and who could not himself speak in American English.
It breaks my heart that my worst fears on that grey morning were actually prescient. These last eight years have hurt deeply, and not just because I didn't vote for the men in power. I believe that history will recall President Bush in harsher tones than we recall Nixon today.
Obama will not fix the world. He will not represent all of my values. He will not even address some of the most urgent issues of the day. Yet on this morning we have a president who was voted for by the majority of the population of the US. We have a man who is dedicated to healing our country and working to address views on both sides of issues. We have no God, but we finally have a man.