Idiot Parade

The cafeteria was packed this morning. Every chair taken, people sitting on tables, on the floors, leaning against counters. I managed to get there just in time to see Joe Biden take the Vice Presidential Oath of Office.

Watching Obama being sworn in and giving his inaugrual address moved me more than I could have ever expected. For the first time, I can honestly call someone My President. My first election, my first time campaigning, my first rally….the first time in my lifetime that I feel truly proud of my country. We still have many faults. We still have a very, very long way to go. The election of a Black man does not mean the end of racism, not by any stretch of the imagination, just as having openly gay officials doesn’t eradicate homophobia. I wish it were that simple. And, of course, we can’t expect President Obama to do everything for us. Amazingly enough, he is not the messiah and he can’t magically make everything better. One of my professors just told us to not hold him to such a high standard, because he cannot save us. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, though. Maybe he can help us to save ourselves. When I heard him speak this morning, I was inspired to work harder. To take more chances. To be more aware of my actions and their consequences. I want this for everyone, because I think that we can be so much better than what we are if we just drop the philosophy of ‘my country, right or wrong’. If we stick with that mindset, then we’re going to keep on making the same mistakes. But if we can follow Obama’s lead, take a step back, and see what’s in front of us without wearing red, white, and blue-colored goggles, then maybe we can start making some changes happen.

I hope that we can do this. I hope that we can band together as a stronger unit. I don’t agree with our new President on everything, and I know people who don’t agree with him on anything. But I believe in my father’s advice of having to start from where you are. We are being given the chance of a lifetime, and we would be fools to waste it. Let’s be more humane. Let’s be wiser. Let’s be more considerate and more joyful and more willing to kick ourselves in the ass when we screw up. Because we do screw up. Quite a lot, actually. But we can learn from this. Starting today, let’s be better.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 10:54 am and is filed under Daily, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.