The Hope of Audacity
Hope springs eternal.
Unless you’re looking for results.
I may have discovered the major difference between me and the throngs that are swooning with the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama. It comes down to hope.
The use of the word “hope” has played a huge part in the expeditious rise to power of this thoughtful self-biographing community activist. He made it a focal point by using the term in the title of his second book “The Audacity of Hope” and never missed a chance to invoke its magic powers in his campaign appearances.
As a crabby old white guy it would be impossible for me to fully appreciate the feeling of hopes and dreams come true for blacks in America having a man of color achieve what only a few decades ago would have seemed impossible. I can however in my own limited way understand the tears of joy as a black family watches this inauguration with their young children, realizing that maybe; just maybe, we have taken a giant leap toward equality for their future. But while this historic event may be the fulfillment of hopes, the reality of the accomplishment was not fulfilled by hope.
I dare to say that for many blacks, their hopes were fulfilled the moment this president took the oath of office. For them it is far less about what he is able to achieve as president than about what he has already achieved by becoming president. Unfortunately the inauguration euphoria won’t last for four years.
Most medical professionals who deal with those struggling with life threatening conditions will tell you that the ability for the patients to maintain hope is a vital addition to their overall recovery possibilities and continued well being. But unless you are speaking to a doctor that works directly for an HMO insurance company they will also tell you that hope is not a replacement for sound medical treatment. If hope was enough we could replace doctors with cheerleaders and catchy fight songs. It would however mean that a poor tumbling routine or dropped pompom could be considered medical malpractice.
There is a reason why we use the phrase “hopes and dreams”. They can both be classified as wishes. But wishing doesn’t make it so and neither will hoping or dreaming. The reality of the Obama presidency is that he is taking over as he put it “in the midst of crisis.” A crisis that can be credited in large part to the political party he will be depending on for support. But as it was their misdiagnosis of the problem and misguided treatment of the economy that led us to this crisis, continuing the charge in the wrong direction will do nothing to fix it.
To be sure there will be the usual finger pointing and blaming the Bush administration for all of the credit woes, but eventually folks will begin to realize that it was the Democrats who held the national purse strings for a full two years prior to the new administration taking over. And it will be the Democrats and their billions of dollars of wasted bailouts that will allow this crisis to worsen unless they come up with a new set of tools.
I want to jump headlong onto the hope bandwagon. But so far the results of the past bailout failures have given me nothing to jump about. Unless, as was displayed by the Inauguration Day 330 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, that jump involves a tall building and a window ledge.
The transition of power was seamless between the Bush and Obama administrations. But the inaction of the past several months due to an outgoing administration deferring to the wishes of the incoming administration coupled with a Congress that can’t get anything done we are now in worse economic shape than we were on Election Day.
In his inauguration speech our 44th President talked about using new tools to face new situations. But thanks to the controversial nature of his cabinet picks he can’t even get them confirmed and seated into their new jobs without controversy within his own party. He said “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear”
I fear that this hope is what you get when there’s nothing else to get.
