Cautious Optimism

Last night was a happy night. I watched the election results come in at the Lompoc bar. Obama was declared the winner right around eight. The mood brimmed with electricity. Glasses clinked and fireworks streaked the night sky.

Yes we can.

Yes we did.

I want to look at this with the blind optimism I see so clearly painted on the faces of my peers. People who say they are now proud to call this country their own. On my walk home I passed people shouting from car windows and others banging pans on street corners. I passed my roommate, and he was crying from joy. I want to look at this moment in that same light, that same joy, but I’m having some trouble.

In Senator McCain’s concession speech his distraught throng of supporters jeered and booed the mere mention of President Elect Obama’s name (damn that feels good to type). McCain showed his class and poise in quieting the mindless booing and praising Obama and the history changing importance of his victory.

As the camera panned through the distraught faces of McCain supporters I saw written out in their expressions disappointment. For them this wasn’t a turn for the better. For them it was a backslide.

These were the same people who praised President George W. Bush when he was elected to the White House. A young, relatively inexperienced politician who promised change in Washington; who promised to go across the aisle to get it done. Remember, he was going to be the Uniter, not the Divider. After all, the way I understand it, he’d gotten things done in Texas without a big majority of Republican support in the state.

We all saw how things turned out. Here we are, muddling through a huge economic downturn and trudging knee-deep through two foreign wars and a brighter future is a hard climb away.

That hope that so many Republicans had at the beginning of President Bush’s term has turned into a landslide victory for the Democrats. Lets try and look at this from where we want to be. This can be the way a better future begins, but only if we are smart. Even the most promising beginnings can rot, degrade and spiral downward without careful vigilance.

The year 2009 is a year of new beginnings – blank page for us to write on. Let us wield our pen with care, with prudence and with compassion. The future will come, no matter if it be good or bad, and this moment in time will one day be a history lesson. It is up to us to make that lesson pivotal, life-changing and hope fulfilling.

Yes we can.

Yes we will.