Boztopia.com

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

– From President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

When you think about the litany of crimes committed against this country and the world by the Bush regime, it seems almost impossible to believe that we have taken such a huge step forward out of the abyss. When you consider the bruising, endless, marathon election season (nearly two years!), it’s hard to conceive of the idea that we have a new President. For a time, it seemed as if the long national nightmare of Bush would go on forever.

Yet here we are. Now that the hordes of Tweets and Facebook status updates on the day’s events have relaxed a bit, it’s worth taking a longer look at What It All Means ™ — for me, at least.

I wasn’t originally an Obama supporter, if you don’t know–I was totally in John Edwards’ ballpark, because he was speaking to the anger and frustration so many of us felt over watching our futures erode away as Wall Street got richer, and we sank into the quagmire of endless war. But Obama caught fire in a way that no other candidate on the Dem side did–because he had the perceptiveness to see that America is, at its heart, an aspirational nation. We approach the world with an openhearted optimism that if we work hard, believe in ourselves, and never give up, we can achieve anything. Watching that optimism burn out and die thanks to everything from 9/11, to Iraq, to the economic crash, is probably one of the most heartbreaking things anyone should endure.

I think, looking back on it now, we needed Obama. The world needed to go through the hell of unregulated, uncontrolled, unrestrained greed and cynicism that was the last eight years (the apex of another thirty years’ worth of modern conservatism run amok) to get to this point. As this commenter from Talking Points Memo astutely notes:

In Riyadh and in Rawalpindi, in Kabul and in Kyoto, in Madrid and in Mumbai, in the slums of Dharawi and in the streets of Dacca, the world will watch the improbable inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama and know that, once again in America, anything is possible.

Obama is now a world leader in every sense–he literally carries the hopes and dreams of millions with him. We need to remember that he is but a man, flawed and fallible, prone to bad decisions and good ones alike. There’s already a war between one faction of the disgruntled right who are convinced Obama is the second coming of Che Guevara, and another faction determined to paint Obama as one of those beloved “center-right” politicians whose primary purpose is to not rock the boat, maintain faith in existing institutions, and not challenge the powerful when they need to be challenged. The resulting tension has led to a lot of decisions he’s made that frustrate and disappoint me, and I’m sure there will be more.

But Paul Rosenberg echoed me when he said that the hope Obama inspires is bigger than him–it’s within all of us, and he has opened the door to a new era of citizens active, concerned, and engaged with their community, their government, and their world. His ascension signals an era where Black men from Kentucky to Kenya can stand up with pride and refuse to let the world define them as less simply for the color of their skin. You can see it in everything from the new volunteer and service networks being born from the Obama for America campaign to the fantastic levels of online discussion and activism at sites from Change.gov (Now WhiteHouse.gov), Change.org, WhiteHouse2.org, etc.

And that active engagement may end up coming into conflict with Obama himself at times–and that, too, is as it should be. The Cato Institute’s Gene Healy wrote an excellent book called “Cult Of The Presidency” which details our dangerous love affair with presidencies, and how everyone from the average person to Congress invests the single figurehead of the Executive with far more power, authority, and leeway than they should. We’ve just lived through what happens when someone not only starts believing they are above the law, but acts accordingly–devastation is the result. It’s our duty as Americans to stay involved, stay aware, and be responsible not only for own actions, but for the course our country takes.

The hope Obama has inspired is greater than him. It’s the first spark in a shift of consciousness, a realization that we are part of something greater than ourselves, and that neither individualism run rampant or collectivism unchecked is the answer to our global crises. Rather, it’s a balance–individuals working together, bringing unique ideas and specific expertise for a common purpose, in the realization of a deceptively simple and yet unfathomably complex truth: That we want a better world for ourselves and our children, and their children after them.

For that alone, I choose hope over fear, and I choose to believe in Barack Obama, and the promise he brings. More than that, I choose to keep doing what I can, where I can,however I can, to make the world a better place. And I have a sneaking suspicion I’m not alone in making that choice.