… the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Post tags: fdr, inauguration speech, obama

Hello and Goodbye (picture from CNN)

But once the music’s stopped, the jetset has jetted off, and the confetti’s been swept from the floor, there’s real work to be done, work that will test our mettle as a people and our thirst for change. That is, if President Obama is willing to do what needs doing.

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Post tags: bush, fdr, great depression, inauguration, new deal, obama

Many observers and pundits wondered morbidly what might happen if Obama lost after having the comfortable lead in just about all the polls leading up to election night. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that. What we will need to worry about is the poison of partisanship that is boiling in this country’s life blood. It’s endemic on both sides of the two-party fence and it has to stop.

In his speech, Obama inserted a plea to an end of partisanship in his speech but a glance at Politico.com or any other of the campaign-tracking websites will show that his campaign was as guilty as McCain’s of playing dirty with spins, half-truths, and outright falsities. It remains to be seen if, having now won the office, he can put down the tools that helped get him there.

My fear has always been that Obama will prove to be an ordinary president, not much different than any other of recent history. However, one thing cannot be understated or forgotten: his election marks a sea change in what is demonstrably possible in the nation. And more, that the youth of this nation can be galvanized behind a cause that they believe in- that such a cause exists at all- and can, in ways that even eluded the promise of the generation of the 1960s, see that cause to conclusion.

My neighborhood has been pro-Obama almost from jump street. From my bedroom, I could here cheers and car horns reverberating from down the block. While I waited for Obama’s speech, I snuck out to see what was up.

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