People Are Happy

For the first time in what is it, 8 years?  People are happy. No, its not just happiness, its jubilation, a sense of renewal, a sense of purpose, a sense of commitment to something greater than themselves.  We went to dinner tonite... sat at the bar... folks to left and the right (physically, not politically) were talking about.... Barack..."did you see Barack at the shelter today? yeah, he rolled up his sleeves and painted a shelter..." or "what an amazing transition of power this will be... I wish I was in Washington."

And even tho we're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, people are renewed, America feels like its holding its head just a little higher since November 4... folks are feeling pretty good.  And this is despite the fact that when President Bush entered office, the unemployment rate was 4 and change.. now its 7 and change.  The multi-trillion dollar surplus that the Clinton administration created evaporated under the weight of Tax cuts. Its clear we're facing a challenge.. a challenge to rebuild.  A challenge to retain our dignity and respect.  To be able to look our loved ones in the eye and be proud of the honest efforts we have made.

Its time to be happy (and proud) again.

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[Chasing My Tale]

Leading up to - and then on the day itself, the people in Washington during Obama's inauguration experience were a gigantic, voluminous, happiness volcano that joyfully rumbled for days, started flowing with hot tears of joy instead of magma on a very, very cold day - and flowed through the entire District of C full of kindness, peace, love (albeit i didn't witness drugs, sex and rock and roll - this comes to mind: what Woodstock was to concerts and music, Barack's inauguration was to politics and government - worldwide. Inauguration weekend, MLK day, and then the inauguration itself - was like NOTHING I've ever been in. I didn't go to it - I was in it. We all were. I have never seen so many people so happy for so long. Just as you said Steve, that was the reality. Black, white, green, orange, purple, blue, yellow, red - it didn't matter what our ethnicity - it only mattered that we had been holding our breath for eight years, we were waiting to exhale - and suddenly we could - with the happiest cheers for a man - and his family - that brought us that most important of intangibles: hope. Like the Dalai Lama tenaciously spreading peace after being brutalized as a young man in his own country - he gave - and gives - the Tibetans (and many others around the world) hope. Like Ghandi - who gave the Indians hope and proved that you don't need to fight to win; Like Martin Luther and Martin Luther King who bucked the establisment and gave hope to the persecuted and discriminated, who questioned authority and never gave up - they gave people hope. Like Mother Theresa. Like the main characters of so many memoirs that we've read and loved - because they overcame adversity and still came out okay during the last chapter - they give us hope. Like all the best movies and novels throughout history that have led us on a voyage where the character faces the most immense odds and still persevers and prevails at the end - and give us hope.
Barack Obama gives us hope. The Republicans may not admit it yet - but they, too feel it. Our elders feel it. Our children feel it. Our unborn babies feel it within their mothers' wombs because those mothers-to-be are a little less anxious now that this compassionate, intelligent, confident, leader yet team-player type of man is leading us. We elected him. We have faith in him. He is bringing us hope.
I have never seen anything like what I saw that day - that inauguration day. I have never seen people crying, screaming with joy, jumping for happiness, hugging and kissing strangers - and not caring where they came from, who they were, what they were.
We were no longer that. We were one - for an instant. We were one giant being made up of many others of us - and I heard that same thing from my friends around the globe, on every continent. They cheered and cried with us. They were elated and happy with us. They high-fived each other and sang the US National Anthem.
5 months ago I couldn't imagine such a thing.
Now I can't imagine it any other way.
And now it is up to us, that giant being, to remember this moment. To remember this hope. To continue hoping. And not to expect Barack to live up to our expectations - but to remember all that he has said and continues to say about us - his fellow Americans - and to try and live up to his expectations. To remember what we've always expected of ourselves, of our country, of our elected leaders - and to expenct no less. And those expectations - of ourselves - have always included "never give up" - always have hope.
Our hope has been rekindled. The volcano of American hope has been rocked into erupting once again by this man - this many who we had barely heard of until only a little more than 4 years ago. And those of us who watched him speak at the Democratic National Convention in Boston back then, in 2004 - we knew we had just heard someone, well, for no better word and to be precise - special. Yes, we knew he was something. And even back then it struck me - he gives me hope.
And that hope has only continued to grow - until we, the people, somehow have an amazing amount of hope for such a dark period in our financial history as a nation. But remember that - this is financial. Yes, it has a ripple effect - but we are not suffering from the plague. We are not under nuclear attack from some rogue country or organization. No, it's a money thing - and we can rebound.
And then we can work on all of the other challenges facing our country, our world. And maybe do it simultaneously, in parallel.
Because we have hope.
Boy, what I wouldn't do to work in Washington right now.
OK, you can see that this made a deep, deep impression on me. Other than the day that my son was born, this felt more intense than any other day in my life.
And then, as the intensity of inauguration day has subsided in my body, in my head, in my heart - as the realization of what we, the people, had done started to calm down...as the understanding that history had been made, that we had finally elected a black person to be president of our country - well, now it's really hit me.
Although it's historical and fantastic that this has happened - something else has happened, at least equally as important - now we barely, rarely hear anything mentioned about Barack being the first black president. We only hear about all that he is already doing as president. Are we moving past the racial divide at warp speed now that this has happened? Somehow it seems that this is occurring, right before our eyes. We have already gone past that - to the point of - he is our president. He is President Barack Obama, the president that has renewed our hope. That reminds us to have hope. That brings the hope out in each of us. He brings out our belief in the possibilities that we can change for the better. And throughout history we can see that this is true: when enough people believe enough in something - it always happens.
President Barack Obama is a believer in hope - and he is an example to all of us. I believe this is the truth.
I can only hope that this is true. I can hope and believe - again.

[Steve Mann]

so how are you feeling now that he's facing the travails of the office.