Now the Work Begins

Whew! Thinking back over all that it took to enable Barack Obama to be sworn in yesterday (and, yes, it was Chief Justice John Roberts that screwed up the wording) makes it tempting to think that now we can sit back and relax. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. That old maxim of it taking as long (or longer) to repair the damage as it did to cause it—in this case by the Bush White House—certainly gives pause to ponder what all is going to have to be done in the next eight years (I’m hoping that Obama will be president for all of those, but it’s going to take that long regardless of who’s President). Indeed, as the first dust of the Wall Street crash begins to settle, it makes it possible to see that many of the weeds were planted by the Reagan White House and that we may well need a quarter of a century or more to correct and reform. Once again President Obama declared that this historic moment is not about him but about us. We the People are now challenged to revive, resusicate, and resurrect those values that Obama represents. Greed can no longer be good. War can no longer be just. We can no longer ignore the least among us and still hope to prosper. I am feeling that most of us who voted for Obama understand this and are now called to continue in the struggle that has only just begun.