A Good Day, a Great Day, and Just Another Day

A good day, a great day, and just another day. Yes, the election of Barack Obama was historical in more than the sense of any presidents election being historical. It is a great day in the history of our nation, the United States of America, because we could elect, in the same old mundane fashion as always, a man who has an African-American ancestry and looks...well..black! His skin color and ancestry were not news, even if his prospective policies were big news and highly debated. I didn't vote for him, but I am glad that we were able to hold an election and he could and did win because enough Americans decided his racial background didn't matter. I think had he not won we could still honestly declare the same, though I'm sure many would doubt it.

It is a good day for me, and probably most Americans, not for the outcome of the election, nor what waxes and wanes in Washington and other cities of great influence. It is a good day because we awoke to another day of basic freedom and peace, shelter, clothing, and food, and many other perks of life that prior generations of Americans didn't have. Sadly, there are many fellow human beings in other parts of the world who are not having such a great day because they don't enjoy the relative wealth of freedoms and material blessings we do. Whether my man or you man gets elected pales in comparison to the reality of what we each have. Yes, there are grave concerns about the economy and the security of our nation. Yes, many of us disagree on how to fix those basic concerns.

Today, despite the fears and expectations felt only 24 hours ago, is just another day for all of us. For most of us we awoke with a mix of good and bad perceptions about the world we live in. We each have personal problems that affect us and those closest to us. We each also have a considerable amount of joy in our lives, even when we may momentarily lose sight of it. What didn't happen today were the worst expectations for a complete collapse of a society we call home. Nor has the sky parted to reveal a gleaming utopia of all that was hoped for, in fact it is raining where I live today! The extremes that drove so many of us with passion for our candidate of choice will now meet reality for the first time and we will all have to adjust to that reality. Can we begin to realize that the other will not ruin our beloved country with great and swift destruction? Can we at least acknowledge that seemingly realized "change and transformation" may not look that different today or tomorrow? And can we then not be disappointed but be willing to reconsider where the other may have been right all along?

Both candidates have asked us to come together as Americans and be willing to compromise and build bridges towards one another, can we? Contempt prior to investigation will always rule out that possibility, especially if we refuse to even consider the good we can accomplish with what we have now. If you didn't vote for President Elect Obama, please give him a chance and be willing to consider where he is doing good for the country. And if you did vote for him, be critical and slow to defend him where he may be moving too fast or simply in the wrong direction, he is capable of being wrong. As he represents us to the world at large we must support him, save the most grievous case of treason, lest he be doomed to fail before he begins. In this last point I would add that we have suffered from too little support for most of the past presidencies since the sixties. If you want change then do your part, it requires swallowing ones pride first. Say "no" to those who are quick to condemn and find grievous fault with a new president and his administration from the start. Both political parties have engaged in witch hunts that impeded the sitting presidents from doing the best they could to represent our country to the world, and most of us let ourselves be caught up in the sophomoric nonsense only to see the powers that be as all good or all bad. Reality is never that easy. We all have to give up something to get rid of that paralyzing cynicism and make real change for America.