Tuesday, January 20, 2009

So...about today...and tomorrow

To use an empty phrase of rhetoric myself, all I can do is hope today. Yes, hope. I know, odd word coming from me right? But at this point I have no other choice. I've put aside my disagreements with our new president and "hope" that he can lead this nation in the right direction.

We can all sit here and debate whether Obama's proposed programs are good or bad, socialist, liberal, conservative, whatever for days. We can sit here and bitch and moan about it and how the country is now in the pit of hell, blah, blah, blah. Like it wasn't already? Obama supporters can sit here and tell us how Bush is responsible for it all in the end and its all on him. We can see the people watching the inauguration who are so ready to "move on" do nothing but boo Bush and Cheney whenever they were on the screen today and show us how they aren't really ready to do that. We could concentrate on any number of these things, but we shouldn't.

If we really believe in a higher being (I'm assuming that many of you I went to high school or college with do), then its a matter of accepting that God has put the man in charge that he wants there at this time, just like the previous 8 years (for you Bush haters or the last 16 for you die-hard GOP nuts). We can "if, but, or what about that", but we shouldn't. We can continue to point out everything with which we disagree in regards to our new president and we can continue to point out everything that was a supposed fault of the previous one, but we shouldn't. Life is seldom black and white. Republicans ruled congress for the majority of Clinton's 8 years, and for the majority of Bush's as well. Good times, bad times. The economy tends to be a cyclical thing, and one that the president actually doesn't have a whole lot to do with, there are simply too many factors in this country and around the world.

But it's time to forget about that. It is. I did not vote for Bush in either of his elections for for Obama or McCain this time around. I voted for 3rd-party candidates who I felt were more in line with my supposed values or thinking. I feel fine with having voted for them. And in disagreement with many, I did not "waste" my vote by voting for the person I was most in line with. But those elections are over, especially the previous one. Unless I want to actually change the way things so and enter the realm of politics in one way or another (and believe me, after thinking about it way too much, I really don't), it's time to shut up and look elsewhere for a way to make this country and the world a better place. I don't know exactly what that is yet, but I know that it is time. Once again, we can concentrate on all of the negatives, but we shouldn't. Instead its time to embrace the countless positives that we have in this country, regardless of how we feel about who is in office and to forget about the whole country being in hell thing. I hope you will join me in moving forward.