Remaking America

 

Americans have been bearing witness to times that cannot be footnoted to historic events.

Financial devastation rooted in greed, recklessness and a lack of accountability has spread unabated; the collateral damage includes innocent (in many cases, not all) businesses and individuals, shaken by bankruptcies and shriveling retirement accounts.

 

Bailouts, precedent-setting in their immensity, have left many wondering who was in charge.

These truly are the times that try man”™s soul.

 

So, it was with a sparseness of words in setting the scene that President Barack Obama began the preamble of his inaugural address. He did not invoke any speech-making inventions used in campaigning such as Jane Smith, a single mother in Wisconsin who lost her job.

 

There was no need.

 

With each economic setback, Americans have become more aware. The silent majority is no longer silent; it has been given voice by acts of stupidity and outright brashness.

 

Pogo, a former philosophizing opossum who lived in a comic strip, once said, “We have seen the enemy and they is us.”

 

Change was inevitable.

 

The status quo got very old and very tired, very quick.

 

The new president saw the need for change and adopted it as his brand during the campaign.

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them ”“ that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply,” Obama said in his inaugural speech.

 

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works ”“ whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public”™s dollars will be held to account ”“ to spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business in the light of day ”“ because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

 

Obama reiterated his calls for an immediate attack on our disintegrating infrastructure.

 

“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act ”“ not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology”™s wonders to raise health care”™s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”

 

With high praise and great expectations from a now-adoring, but ever fickle, public, Obama should expect a short honeymoon if his promises are not fulfilled quickly enough.

 

He is facing a most imperfect storm that alters course to the whims of Wall Street.

 

But having lived his adult life in Chicago, Obama needs to invoke the powerful image by writer Carl Sandburg who painted it as “the city of the big shoulders.”

 

For it will take immense strength and courage for the new president to balance his portion of the world.

 

Good luck, Mr. President.