Change, Patience and a gift!

One year ago the winds of change blew in a positive direction and this nation elected Barack Obama as its first African-American President.  More important than that achievement for a racial group that has been oftentimes demonized and maligned by majority society was the fact that people chose the politics and message of hope and optimism over a politics and message rooted in hate and fear.  While to some that statement reeks of esoteric, pie-in-the sky, unrealistic liberalism to me that message resonnated with all that I believe in.  For a brief moment in our collective journey a majority of our citizens chose to believe in the possibility of a better day...we chose to believe in the best a person could offer...we chose to come together despite our many differences...we chose to live out the ideals expressed in our constitution.  In short we chose CHANGE.  And while change is not always comfortable or easy it is almost always a GOOD thing.

Yes I was (and still am) an Obama supporter...BUT at this point I have become totally disgusted with and disillusioned by the citizens of this country and their complete LACK of Patience with regard to the political process. 

Anyone who has even a rudimentary understanding of civics or spent (as I did ) Saturdays watching the political Schoolhouse Rock segments between cartoons must realize that our chosen political system is not one that lends itself to rapid change.  Having a presidential federal republic with 3 branches of government and a system of checks and balances pretty much guarantees that all change will be of an incremental variety.  Sweeping changes in politics is most often achieved in violent military takeovers of government.  Yet we as a people in this country have no patience to participate in the political process, research options, encourage our politicians to make good choices and revise those choices if times and situation.  In our microwave, minute rice, fast food society we have transferred that completely unhelpful attitude to our political process.  Instead of Patiently, watchfully, prayerfully working with your political party over the course of time we have set up all these completely artifical benchmarks (like the 100 days in office) and condemn a leader based on this knee jerk response.  currently theose on the right who NEVER liked Obama in the first place are overhyping and harping on every single speech, adjustment, missstep and declare the man a failure...that is to be expected when a group gets booted from power their natural inclination is to claw back to that position by any means necessary.  What saddens me is those on the Left, progressives, liberals, as well as independents who are so quick after less than a year of governence to dump their candidate and turn their back on him.  It is almost as if everyone thought that Obama was going to wave a magic wand on January 20th and grant every wish and fulfill every campaign promise overnight...however the United States of America simply doesn't work that way.  Am I saying Obama should get a free pass...ABSOLUTELY NOT!...we MUST keep pressure on him to keep the promises that he campaigned on and we must stay engaged in the political process with our other representatives.  But I feel that as our elected leader he deserves our patience and support until at least the midway point of his term.

If the previous administration taught us nothing else it should have taught us that governing from "the gut", making brash decisions, entering wars without a clear exit strategy, and doing things that may be politically expedient and satisfy the base without counting the long term costs is bad for the nation.  The crazy American way of demanding gourmet dinner quality while giving people 15min of prep time is simply unrealistic.  Americans cannot continue to behave in our political process like an unmedicated 6yr old with ADHD.

Now I have NOT been happy with all of our President's decisions and actions.  I think he has done some good, some bad, and frankly some stuff has just plain been ugly.  But at the same time I realize that we can't truly hope for lasting and positive change to come about without realizing that it takes TIME. 

Maybe on the 1yr anniversary of President Obama's election we can give him a GIFT...as a country I hope that we regain our common sense and learn to be a little more patient with ourselves, each other and our leaders.  then maybe we can help to right the ship that is America and get back to where we should be.