A New President

So, it's been just over a week since the Presidential election. Elyse and I watched together, gripped by the sense of change sweeping through the country and the world. In our lives, the closest excitement I can remember was New Years Eve 2000. I remember staying up far into the morning and watching the celebrations sweep across the world as midnight moved west. I recall feeling that the world was fully connected at that time. Of course, since then so much has happened in the world and our lives that cast a pall over that optimism.

But in one day, the world swung quickly back. We live in tough times: thousands dying for no reason in Iraq, unparalleled economy crisis, xenophobia. The rise of the Internet and new technologies will chronicle those events in far greater detail than I could. I can imagine the kids in 10, 15 years doing research on "Modern History" by pulling up the blogs and articles of the time and getting a feel for the events as they unfolded. But, as always, the personal perspective can never be fully communicated. Life must be experienced. Aiya sent me a e-mail a week before the election drawing a parallel with her youth:

You are too young to know what a really energized young population can do.  I think Obama is the first person in decades to touch that place in the hearts and minds of young people.  I think blacks have never had this chance to be part of an all encompassing experience and not just a black leader for black people.  I have to admit it also touches a place in me that the last several elections made me think I would never feel again.

In the week since the election, Obama has continued to demonstrate an understanding of the possibilities of his mandate. I subscribe to the blog on change.gov, which is the web site of his transition team. I look forward to the next posting.

I hope that we are seeing the dawn of a new US. One where my children will be safer and more prosperous. I am really beginning to understand the old adage that parents just want their children to be better off than they are.