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Change.

It is the topic of numerous talking head discussions. It is the mantra of the masses. It is the promise of things to come in Washington DC.

In his final national address President Bush signed off as Commander and Chief and began the process of turning over the reins of power to the Commissioner of Change. The 44th president will be inaugurated in just a few days bringing with him a cosmic popularity rating and a voter approved mandate of change. Political pundits will spend the coming months continuing to debate what the Bush legacy will be. Knowing the blatant disdain most of the press has for GWB they will focus their attention on the negative. Many will focus on the current economic conditions as being the number one topic most folks will remember him for. Some will center their attention on the length of the Iraq War and a few will spotlight elements of work undone or at least unfinished like social security reform or renewable energy. But if change is what the huddled masses are truly yearning for all they have to do is look around.

Since September 11, 2001 this country has seen nothing but change. I am old enough to remember the days when families would go to the airport as spectators to a sporting event and watch planes fly in and take off. I can recall when you could transfer assets with your financial advisor without sixteen kinds of federal government oversight or when you could walk into a court building without a full body cavity search.

Certainly we saw many changes being instituted into our security practices prior to the 9-11 attacks. But since that fateful day change has been multiplied exponentially in almost every facet of our daily existence. Change has become so commonplace that it is difficult sometimes to remember what it was like before our world changed that September morning.

Sometimes as I’m standing in line for the security checkpoint at the airport preparing to take my shoes off, remove all metal items from my pockets and place all liquids from my carry-on in a clear plastic bag on the x ray belt I wonder if the terrorists have already won. They have indeed forced change into the activities of our daily lives and have changed the national mindset. And isn’t that actually the goal of a terrorist? To inflict terror that changes lives and thought?

But then something happens, as it did in New York, and the real impact of change can be clearly seen. US Airways Flight 1549 took off out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport bound for North Carolina. After striking a flock of non-terrorist related birds the aircraft lost power and was forced to ditch into the frigid Hudson River putting the 155 souls onboard in definite peril.

But almost as this jetliner slid to a halt in the water a battalion of civilian boat operators were heading for the sight to pluck the passenger off the wings and bring them safely to shore. New York’s first responders were there with a remarkably well planned, practiced and executed rescue plan and New York hospitals were put on high alert to receive and treat the possible victims.

The events that happened after that plane touched down are clear reminders that we have indeed changed. We have not folded as the terrorists expected. We have not succumbed to fear. We have gotten better.

Never again will passengers allow a handful of murderers take over their airplane. Civilians will not sit idly by and wait for someone else to respond to an emergency situation. Our first responders are better trained and our emergency systems have never been more cohesive. Our country has always had its share of heroic individuals, but we have become unified in our spirit and resolve.

Perhaps history will show us that it was President Bush that led us through the most significant era of change our country has known. Not the kind of change that can be legislated from Capitol Hill but a change in our national conscience.

The 9-11 terrorists did not change us as they had hoped to, they only made us stronger.