Inauguration Day

It has been a truly historical day. I don't know how many people were late to work on the west coast or how many took a long lunch on the east coast to watch the inauguration on TV, but I can tell you no one at our office was working. While it is amazing to see a black man being sworn into the office of the President, that fades away in about two minutes of hearing him speak. The change from the previous office holder is so stark it makes you sit and wonder if the last eight years really happened. Hearing the President talk about making sacrifices and addressing the hard decisions we have been avoiding for years was very refreshing. To hear the President talk about finding common ground as opposed to the former regime instilling fear and emphasising our differences gave me hope. I am already looking forward to reading this post a year from now to see how we are doing. I have no doubt there will be hard times ahead and that the economy will get worse before it gets better, but I think in the long run we are better positioned now than we have been in decades to effect major change. I haven't felt this good about America in years (which seems crazy given the news we read every day on Wall Street). My prediction is that politics will change, there will be more bi-partisan legislation. We will see the beginning of health care reform, we'll see a new immigration policy, there will be a jobs and infrastructure initiative that focuses on the green economy, and we'll be within six months of leaving Iraq. OK, there it is on "paper" let's see what happens.