Assorted Thoughts

Well, I'm not the happiest I've ever been. I did not vote for Obama, and I did not want him to become our next president. I am concerned about a lot of things that will likely transpire in the coming years: the state of the Supreme Court, the state of our national security, and the future of the abortion industry, to name a few.

I think that in the course of the next year, people will discover a lot of things. They will discover that you can't put your trust in a human. That they shouldn't have thrown around words like "hope" and "believe" with such levels of messianic zeal when speaking of anyone short of Jesus Christ. Jesus is, after all, the only one who can truly offer change and the only one in whom we ought to place our hope.

At the end of the day, when Obama is President, there will still be economic troubles. We will still live in a culture of debt. There will still be energy woes, oil companies, and irresponsible lenders to complain about. Oh, and America will still be a great nation founded on the greatest of principles. Let's not forget that.

Many are saying that Obama's presidency will cause a dramatic shift in the way the rest of the world perceives the United States. Perhaps so. Other countries have loved to cite America as a racist nation, and that will have to change. But the American president doesn't have the power to change everything overnight - thanks to the way our government is established. Obama can not fix the market tomorrow or end the struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan. And countries that hate America, if they are honest, hate some of our virtues as well as our vices, and we are not going to bring an end to capitalism or freedom. We are still a nation founded on the same principles we were founded on four years ago, and 232 years before that as well.

We live in a country that has come a long way since 1861. While I am certain I will disagree with many policy choices in the next four years, I will say this: I am proud to live in a country that is free and democratic. A fair election and peaceful passing of power should not be taken for granted. The Constitution still stands and the flag still waves. Diversity is a good and beautiful thing, and we have taken another step toward that infamous dream, that dream deeply rooted in the American dream:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

...And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

God bless America.