by David Glasgow
District 18 Metro Council Candidate
There has been a lot of change in our nation since Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the first Republican president. Yesterday was the final day of George W. Bush’s presidency, also a Republican. As President, Bush listened to the wrong people. As a result he made a lot of bad choices. And we are left with a bill we’ll be paying for a very long time. His presidency got off to the rockiest start in memory, and ended as a shipwreck.
Today, we wake up to the biggest change in generations. Even before being sworn in as our President, Barack Obama has shown himself to be different, not in color, but in his ability to see beyond entrenched interests, to reach out to those we thought his enemies and to pull together good ideas without prejudice for where they come from. My hope is that President Obama is the person who will finally cut through the thorny barriers erected by cynical politicians for a generation. That he will bring us together, united in hope, to build a better world with room enough for everyone.
I heard Civil Rights leader Diane Nash talking about her experience learning to use peaceful protest as a mighty weapon in the fight for equality. She said that the lesson to take from the life of Rev. Martin Luther King is not to wait around for an inspirational leader to bring about social change. The lesson is to ask yourself what you can do to bring about the change you hope for.
We stand on the shoulders of all those who have come before us. That means we have a responsibility to those who come after.
Here in our own community we have the ability to look beyond the prejudices that chain us to the past. We can choose to listen to each other with respect. And it is our choice to build bridges across whatever old divisions keep us apart. We owe it to those who will come after us. We owe it to our neighbors. We owe it to ourselves. We can all be part of the revolution that starts Tuesday, January 20, 2009.
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Post your comments below about the new political era we entered today.
"I was proud to be able to watch the inauguration with about 15 or more of my coworkers at Vanderbilt, and as the new President spoke of hope I looked around and thought how blessed I am to work with people who are supportive and accepting of who I am, and it gives me hope that a new administration will be the same." - O&AN Publisher Jerry Jones
"Amazing to see the diversity that is being brought together in this event - the right and left meeting in the middle."
- Dennis A. Stull, SPHR, MBA