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The election of Barack Obama is indeed historical and marks the beginning of a new era in American history. Not only has our country made great strides in achieving Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of an America where we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, we have reached new heights of involvement in the political process and have called for change. Barack Obama ran on a platform of change. “Yes, we can” was his campaign slogan.
Now that he has been elected our 44th president and the first black president of the United States of America, we must remember that we only elected a president, not a savior. While bold claims of change were made on the campaign trail, President-Elect Obama has always made it clear that he needs our help – the help of all Americans to succeed.
While he promises to improve education, it is up to us to engage in the education of our own children and send them to school prepared to learn. New jobs can be created but we have to be prepared to qualify for them and have the proper work ethic to keep them. While having access to health care is critical, more than 60% of our health outcomes are determined by our own habit and behaviors. We must be prepared to live healthy lives and do our part to minimize preventable diseases. Our environment will only get better if we all reduce our energy consumption and live more “green” lives.
In other words, we have to do our part. Obama will only succeed if we put forth the same type of effort and assume an even greater level of responsibility than his staff, army of volunteers and millions of America’s voting citizens took in getting him elected. As he stated, his victory was our victory – the victory of the American people. His success – or failure – will be ours as well.
Barack Obama will assume office in on January 20, 2009. Until then he will be preparing himself to execute his plans. He is preparing himself to effectively use all of the power that will be bestowed upon him as the President of the United States of America to affect the greatest change possible.
What are you doing to prepare for your part? Do you understand that you too have tremendous power to affect change? If you are going to do your part, why not join our President-Elect in preparing for the most powerful time of our lives. Determine which of the issues are most important to you. Decide what you will do in your own life to improve in those areas and make a commitment to work to change the system in an area or areas that are of greatest importance to you.
Have a powerful day!
Cecilia
