It's a new world dawning

Stuck on the corner of a bulletin board, in the midst of other old buttons (real live pieces of flair!) is a campaign button that says, "Bring back complete sentences. John Kerry for President." Clearly that didn't happen, but in today's NY Tmes, columnist Gail Collins writes, "We are about to enter a world in which our commander in chief speaks in full sentences, and I do not know what we’re going to do to divert ourselves on slow days."

And on NPR just a few minutes ago was a piece on someone who has written songs about all the presidents, and just wrote one about Obama. In the interview he said that Obama has been like someone comforting a hurt child, patting it on its back and saying, "Everything is going to be all right." I think that is an apt image.

A year ago when we were all starting to get excited about the candidacy of Barack Obama, did we know how bad things would be when he finally made it into office? I don't think most of us imagined that we would be were we are now. I, like many I know, was concerned about ending what seems like an endless war, about our broken health care system, about our eroding civil liberties. And I did wonder what George Bush might get the country into as his term wound down.

Turns out that GWB didn't have to do anything else--he'd already planted the seeds for the mes we find ourselves in now--broken economy on top of all the rest. I'm still worried about the war and healthcare and restoring our civil liberties. But I'm also worried that the financial morass we're in is one we have little hope of getting out of. And I wonder if the Obama presidency will be so weighted down by the economic crisis and all the detritus it brings with it that everything else will be eclipsed.

I'm still hopeful. I'm impressed by the way Obama has worked to set up the new administration, including former opponents, working to be conciliatory. I would've hope for a little more representaion for real liberals; I'm unhappy with his invitation to Rick Warren but happy that he invited Gene Robinson for Sunday's event; I'm pleased that he respects the UN enought to make the UN ambassador a cabinet level position. I wish he'd talk more about ending the war and fixing healthcare, but I understand why priorities have changed. And overall things look soooo much better than they have in the last 8 years. It really does feel like a new world dawning. May it be so.