For the few loyalist who follow the rantings and ruminations of this Blog, I offer an apology for the hiatus since the Presidential election in the USA. A rash of excuses might be offered, such as a busy schedule and demands of a teaching career. In truth, the more probable reason is a need to take time and reflect on the events of the world, the changes implicit in selection of new leadership and the ramifications of the decomposition of the global economy, global environment and public trust wrought in large measure by the Bush Administration.
To be sure, all the world's ills cannot be laid at the feet of President George W. Bush. Yet the enormous force and consequences of his Administration's misguided and incompetent leadership amply demonstrates the danger of placing too much faith, power and hope in the hands of any individual leader. Some disasters are, however, more predictable than others. The lack of intellectual capacity and curiosity on the part of Bush foretold an inability to appreciate the important nuances of governance and the unwillingness to consider longer term consequences of willful actions and policies. By any measure and by any viewpoint, save the proponents of world destruction, the presidency of George W. Bush has been a disaster. His sole success has been in topping the list of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, a dubious distinctions.
Yet with his tenure to be shortly at an end, we really have no choice but to pick up the shattered pieces of a nation whose bank, infrastructure and spirit have been broken or at the very least seriously injured. The level of antipathy, sniping and division incited by the GOP over the past decade and supported by its Democratic counterpart has not been seen in the country since the Viet Nam War era and the Civil War before that. The challenge ahead is to meld a critical eye with a positive spirit as the nation seeks to work through the current crises and move toward a more creative and optimistic future.
To that end, the aspiration of this Blog will be to place a positive oar in the water with the hopes of helping to propel the ship of state toward a brighter future. Though meager in scope, the efforts are well intended. I subscribe to the postulate: "If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem." And so I invite all who read this Blog to do the same and add your voices, your commentary, your hopes and your good will. President Barack Obama will need no less if he is to succeed in any real measure in effecting change that the country needs so desperately. Unlike Bush, Obama has declared his belief that the USA government must be "of the people and for the people." That foundational principle of the nation, if achieved, would be a sea change from the government we have experienced for the past eight years. So what say we give him a hand?
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