I took a couple of hours off to watch the procedings today. I've never done that before. Since high school (maybe before) I've understood on an intellectual basis what "a peaceful transfer of power" means, but it's taken until now for the full effect of that phrase to really resonate within me. Sorry... I can be kind of slow about these things.
I took the whole thing for granted, really. Shame on me.
But now, now that I'm the same age as the man taking the oath, it all hit home.
What's happened here is just barely comprehensible.
I have not "drunk the Kool-Aid".
I don't believe that Obama is anything more than a man.
I don't believe that any one person can heal all of the wounds and right all of the wrongs of the last eight years.
But I do believe that one man can lead the people where the last was led by greed and vanity and the military-industrial complex that a former leader of his own party warned about two generations earlier. "The People" ended up being dragged along in increasingly unwilling numbers.
The holes that have been dug by the previous administration (and those started decades ago and deepened through benign neglect or malignant intent) will take a lot of time and effort to fill.
One man can't do it all.
But one vast country still can.
No comments:
Post a Comment