“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
-Ronald Reagan

I start out today’s entry with a quote from our 40th president.  It seems apt given the nature of our country and President Reagan features prominently in the discussion.  Reagan was a very intelligent and gifted leader.  When I write that he was intelligent, I don’t mean a braniac or anything like that, I mean he had the foresight and demeanor to look ahead at a troubled country and provide guidance.  He was capable enough to surround himself with the brightest minds and to delegate out his vision to those who could carry it through.  As I think about the ridiculous nature of the inauguration spectical, I have to admit I am overcome with a sense of dread.  Now, some may think this is the typical dread being reported by those who did not vote for Obama, but I like to think myself a bit more evolved than that.  While I certainly did not vote for Obama and my own personal feeling is he is a financial illiterate that will only plunge this country further into debt and depression, I am willing to at least give the man a chance.

What actually makes me the most sad about this is how much those who voted for Obama don’t understand the historical significance of this event.  They have made it into some celebrity riden gala celebrating diversity and platitudes and have completed missed the point.  This man will be our 44th president of the United States, no small feet for any person, regardless of the color of their skin.  he takes the reigns of leadership when our nation is vulnerable and fragile.  We are on a precipe, looking down at a sea of hardship, strife, and struggle, and require someone who has convinction and character to lead America through tough times.

I am baffled at how so many people have taken stance behind a series of platitudes and fluff, who are willing to celebrate and emblazon a man not for his actions or his thoughts, not even for strength of character but for the color of his skin.  Many of these same people are those drone on about continued intolerance and unfairness.  Yet isn’t amazing how a majority of us don’t care about the color of a man’s skin.  Let me repeat for all those who are irate that a plebeian would dare deface their king.  I DON’T CARE WHAT COLOR HIS SKIN.  I care about actions, I care about experience, I care about character.  Sidney Harris once wrote:

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, “I was wrong”.”

Personally, I am more than willing to say that I was wrong, to admit my ignorance if Obama can resist the  power he is about to have handed to him and show himself to be a man of principle and character.  If he can be a leader who can truly stand up for what he believes in, carry through on the promises he has made, and help our nation be better.  Time will tell.

So, as we go forward, and as the masses prepare to hail their king, this man that they have blindly set atop a very high pedestal, think about the founding of this country, why it was founded and what our founding fathers had hoped to establish and preserve within the American government.  Think of all the lives that were sacrificed, the hardships endured so that we could be free.  Think about that word, think about your freedom.  Think about things like socialized healthcare, suspension of habeus corpus, mass taxation; think about the simple fact that when you walk into an airport or a government building every single right you have, protected by the most sacred of American documents is suspended by the very institution created to protect them.

As our late president Reagan said; “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.“