100 Words

There is an opportunity, on alternet.org, to write a 100 word essay to Barack Obama about what you would like to see in the first 100 days of his presidency. I was so moved at his election, so moved to see Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face, so moved that this country I love so much has finally come to its senses, or at least opened that door. So my 100 words were asking Obama to remind us of who we are as a nation -- generous, kind, united -- so that we can go about the business of building a staircase out of the hole we've fallen into.

I believe so deeply in the ability of ordinary people like me to rise to a higher level of cooperation, and personal choices, and valuing each other and this beautiful earth, and I think Obama may be able to help us bring that out. Or so I hope.

The Onion had a headline, "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job," and it's true, but when I look at what the mess really is, it's all about the lies that became synonymous with America -- that money is what's important, that the more money you have the better, that we don't have to consider the poor, the weak, or the environment, that cheap food is good food and on and on. These are all ideas that need to go.

It's terribly painful -- with our two mortgages, car payments, and student loan, we're right there with the rest of the struggling people who once had it made. But there are other possibilities and without lots of easy money we have plenty of motivation to explore them. What if what was most important was how we treated each other and the environment? What if we spent our fewer dollars with more thought, in ways that supported people and businesses and systems that we believed in? I don't know how you turn this creaky old ocean liner around, but I think it can be done. My hope is that we've elected the right person to lead us, because if we don't change, we're going down and taking much of the world with us. But if we can change, we may find ourselves in a new world. It may be starting already.

P. returned from visiting her daughter in D.C. after the election, where she lives in a largely black neighborhood. The black people in the neighborhood were so much more open and friendly and outgoing than she had ever seen before because of Obama's election, and isn't it about time? Maybe it's just the right time, and maybe some day I'll be flying a flag again, next to a copy of the Statue of Liberty. It's not impossible, and what is possible is that we are about to step in to a new era.

I'll keep my flag in my heart for now, but try not to keep my sense of possibility under wraps -- in times like these, we all need hope, and amazingly, there's reason to hope. Hooray for America -- and for the wild and wonderful possibilities the future now seems to hold.