The New Guy is on the Job

Well, the new guy has moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Many people are piling a lot of hopes on this man’s plate. Some of them are realistic and some, not so much. Before he gets too busy I have some requests.
There is a lot of consternation about the economy. While I agree he should look into this issue, first he needs to appoint a blue ribbon, bi-partisan commission in conjunction with a special investigator (has anybody seen Ken Starr lately) in order to explain why Jack Bauer has not been named the Secretary of Homeland Security. He accomplishes more in 24 hours than anyone can possibly imagine. Actually, he does everything in about 17.6 hours when you subtract commercials.
The new Mr. President is a learned man. He went to Columbia University and Harvard Law School and was a professor at the University of Chicago. He has written books and his speeches are hailed by many for raising the general levels of discourse and rhetoric in today’s politics. My hope is he will lead this nation to value the artistry and power of words, to raise beyond the third grade reading level of mass media, and inspire today’s youth to embrace Dickens, Shakespeare, and McCartney. McCartney? Yes, Paul McCartney who wrote those immortal, life affirming words: “Ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on bra, la-la how the life goes on.” Was there ever a better example of John Keats’s “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”?
Restoring the United States’ reputation internationally is something the new president looks to accomplish. This may not be an easy task. Even one of our earliest friends has issues with us. I’m talking about France, a country who threw in with the upstart thirteen states in 1778 and helped them gain their independence from the England (even though they did so more because they were still ticked at England for the whole Henry V kicking their butt at Agincourt thing than because they liked us, like that girl in tenth grade who went to the dance with you just because she knew her ex-boyfriend thought you were a complete dweeb).
My suggestion to get France to like us again is a win-win situation for both countries. You know how France thinks one of our own native sons is an artistic genius. I am referring to Jerry Lewis, who the French Minister of Culture called the “French people’s favorite clown” when he bestowed upon him the Legion d’honneur. Well, I say send him to France as a present. Throw in Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller and it makes our country a better place as well.
If I may be allowed to stray from the silliness for a while I would like to say I have placed some of my genuine hopes for the future on President Obama’s plate. While watching the inauguration on television Tuesday I choked up a few times. Granted I can be overly sentimental and have been known to cry at Hallmark commercials, but that which was on display January 20th should make most Americans reach for a tissue.
Whether you voted for Senator McCain or the eventual winner everyone should agree when this country puts on its best and tries to live up to the reputation as the beacon of freedom and opportunity for all it can be impressive. The most jaded and pessimistic of us would say we are just pretending. Well, when you were a kid in the backyard you pretended to be the ultimate example of your dreams – an amazing athlete, a hero with superhuman powers, a princess who was the epitome of charm and grace or a fireman rescuing the helpless. Even if we were pretending and have not attained the level of justice and moral strength described on that podium at least we are pretending to be something valuable, something worth striving for and something I want my children to believe is possible to achieve in their everyday lives even if it is not always on display in our government.
I liked President Obama’s list of American values requisite for the tasks ahead: hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism. I work in a school populated with over five hundred children and I know we try to give them exposure to these values, but it is often an uphill battle to make them stick. If our new leader can do anything to help those children and the ones like them throughout our country grasp those ideals there is no way we won’t make headway against all the obstacles in our path.