Thoughts on the Inauguration

January 20, 2009

I plugged an antenna into my television so I could watch the inauguration today. As a student of history, I realize it’s a pretty big moment and I figured I’d be lax if I didn’t watch.

For the first time in my life, I’m ecstatic to see a US president leave office. George W. Bush has been an unmitigated disaster as the country’s chief officer. Undoing all the damage he’s either caused or turned a blind eye toward is going to be next to impossible. So just for today I’m celebrating the fact that any future decisions he makes will no longer impact the entire world.

Don’t take my happiness about the old boss’ departure as a ringing endorsement of the new boss, though. I watch Barack Obama with a skeptical eye. I think he has a lot of positive qualities, and I think he understands the importance of diplomacy, so I’m hopeful that things will be better than they have been the last eight years. But I also worry that under his watch, his party will try to put the stamp of its most radical fringe on this country. That’s exactly what’s been wrong with the other party since 2001 – fringe elements controlling the fortunes of 300 million people.

We don’t need a key change, we need a song change. I have no idea whatsoever if Obama is the bandleader that everyone’s saying he will be. Honestly, I doubt it; he has too many hopes pinned to him to ever fulfill them all. But I also doubt that he can be as bad at his new job as the man who’s leaving it behind. For at least one day, I’m thankful for that.

The post Thoughts on the Inauguration by Jason Kirk, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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