The Blame Game

On November 4, 2008, it was announced that Barack Obama had been elected the new president of the United States. Despite being a rather tepid supporter when compared to his large, rabid following, I still cried tears of joy at the announcement. I cried, not because I see him as a Messiah in the midst of our country's dark days, but because he is, symbolically at least, a light. I do not know whether he will be able to take the giant strides we all hope he will in getting this country back on the right track economically, socially, and globally...but I hope he does. I do not know if the country's morale will survive if his term is not "successful," but I hope we never have to find out.

At the end though, I cried, because now I can look at my little nephew and say, truly, "You can be whatever you want to be." I cried because it seems that maybe, hopefully, we can end this age of scapegoating and entitlement. Regardless of the past, regardless of circumstance, there comes a time when every person, of every race has to pull him or herself up by his or her own bootstraps. And there comes a time when we must lift our neighbors up too.

It's amazing, because you find a sense of entitlement amongst the wealthy and the poor, amongst all of the races. The wealthy feel entitled, well, because they are wealthy. The poor feel entitled, because they are oppressed. You know what? Now I feel free to say, "Get to work!" It's time to stop worrying about what we're "entitled" to. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. The time for pointing fingers is not now...because finger pointing will not allow us to succeed and move forward, individually or collectively.