The Change

Is scheduled to be born on Friday, March 13th, 2009 via C-section.

Seems apropos somehow…

I spent the morning doing what many Americans did today, I watched the most exciting moment in the history of the world. The peaceful transfer of power that can only happen here in the United States of America. The 43rd President George W. Bush steps aside as the 44th President Barack Obama takes the oath of office and assumes the most powerful role in the world. As always, I was brought to tears. Not because my guy is out and yours is in…it’s bigger than that. Your guy just became my President and as it always is – it is a deeply moving moment to witness. Like most people I wish him well and I will pray that he is a successful President because his success will be our success and his failure will be our failure.

I’m going to reprint a portion of President Obama’s Inaugural Address – the part that spoke the loudest to me.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: “Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive … that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Amen, Mr. President.

I wish Godspeed and a safe journey home to President Bush and Mrs. Bush, despite the anger and venom you and yours have suffered, I will never forget the fact that you did your best to keep us safe after the attacks on 9/11. You did your job, you insured that the homeland remained safe when many of us doubted we would ever be safe again. Thank you, Mr. President and God Bless America.

Before even being sworn in as POTUS, President-Elect Barack Obama has begun backing away from his campaign promises.

“In a package of this magnitude, will there end up being certain projects that potentially don’t meet that criteria of helping on health care, energy or education? Certainly,” he told ABC’s “This Week” in a taped interview aired yesterday.

He also acknowledged that his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay will be more of a challenge than anticipated. Obama said that while some evidence against terrorism suspects may be tainted by the tactics used to obtain it, that doesn’t change the fact they are “people who are intent on blowing us up.”

Promises, like criticisms, are very easy to make but once reality hits you smack in the face – you have no choice but to make the tough decisions only a President can make. I wonder how the “reality-based community” will take this? It certainly doesn’t smell like “change” to me. Of course, I never believed in his message of “hope and change”.

I KNEW that he would NEVER be able to deliver on the majority of his promises, of course, I don’t believe in the Toothfairy either…that’s why I didn’t vote for him and why I visit the dentist regularly.