Did we really think any of this was going to be easy?
A year ago today, I celebrated the inauguration of President Obama with approximately a gadzillion people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
View from National Mall, January 20, 2009
Today, I woke up to news of aftershocks in Haiti, the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, and the predictably gloomy economic news. It’s easy to reflect on the mood of hope that predominated a year ago and focus, now, on what seems to be a rising tide of despair.
I have to remind myself: did we really think any of this was going to be easy?
If we had any illusions about that, we certainly don’t now. And that, in a way, is pretty heartening for me. The task is simply at hand. And hand-wringing clearly won’t help.
Ask me about where my hope is right now, and I guess don’t have a very good answer. But I’m going to resist the temptation to hunker down and despair. After all, friends, I think we’ve got a president who actually understands. His response to the election of Scott Brown:
Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country. The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.
Ask me where my hope is right now, and I guess I’ll tell you it probably doesn’t matter, anyway. I think that hope probably doesn’t stand a chance against anger and frustration right now. But I think Obama is a very smart leader, and while I shake my head at much of the WTF-inspiring performance of the House and Senate leadership this past year, I am prepared to weather the storm. In the face of so much anger and frustration (and my own anger and frustration) there seems to be only one good thing do, and that’s to do more good.
So I guess that my hope is still where it’s always been, in the power of doing more. This here and now needs us to do a lot more good! And we don’t need a Democratic senator in Massachusetts to do it.
