"I am making a commitment to you, as your next president, that we are going to make government work," Obama said. But, he warned, "government can only do so much. If we're just waiting around for someone else to do it for us ... it never gets done. We're going to have to take responsibility, all of us."
We've all been waiting a long time for today.
Everyone in DV worked hard for the election of this man. We talked with people across the country during our 4x60 Tour. We volunteered, etc.
We also lectured about uncertainty surrounding how two political parties could represent the millions of diverse people in our nation. All their beliefs, backgrounds, needs, etc. And now, we see the system is changing somewhat and have no reason to yet doubt this man and his team and the hope we've entrusted him/them with.
That said, he's all entrusted us with something... the call to duty, which I think we'll hear much about today.
Here are examples of what they've already done to change the system and how we must answer the call to duty (we'll be including these in our lecture this thursday too, so it's good practice!):
1. http://change.gov/open_government/yourseatatthetable
Your seat at the table allows Americans (and the whole world) to read, review and comment upon documents the Obama administration receives from interest groups. So far there are a number of reports online.
2. http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/
Citizen's Briefing Book. The President receives a briefing book from each of his advisors each night. The idea is that now he'll receive a briefing from the American people, as well. Registered users can log in, review others' ideas, vote yes or no on them, etc. The most popular ideas get addressed via video responses from his administration and then get passed onto him.
3. http://change.gov/americaserves/
America Serves. Here, everyone can view ways to volunteer in their communities and also post needs for volunteers. Out of curiousity, I looked up my parent's hometown of Lititz.. today, there are nearly 100 ways to volunteer in their small community posted on the Obama site. That's pretty amazing. I also received an email from a group here in Vienna asking the Austrians to take the cue of the American people and volunteer today in as many ways possible in their own communities.
THis leads me back to the title - finally. Finally, for the first time today, I wore another person's image on me - my Obama t-shirt that says CHANGE. Finally, today on every paper I've seen here, in German I can read the words "Yes we can." Finally, today, even the Austrians and the whole world are coming together to celebrate, rather than criticize, the U.S. (finally since Bush, I should say, but it seems like it's been longer than 8 years)... not only to celebrate, but to say - let's follow the example of this man and serve our communities, be good neighbors and try to make a difference in this world. I think today Obama will tell us that he'll do his best, but so must each of us.
Enjoy the inauguration... we'll be watching it here at 6pm and then joining the rest of the world in a global party this evening... locally, from some boat docked in the Danube river :)
