Our entire planet seems to have exhaled a simultaneous, unified sigh of relief in the firm hope that America has popped the bubble of arrogance and indifference that has isolated it from the world community for the past eight years. The election of a black man named Barrack Hussein Obama has not only proven that Americans are willing to do what is in the best interest of their country and the world, but also that they will do so across racial and cultural barriers that, such a short time ago, threatened to destroy the ideals established by the founding fathers. That being said, I, as well as many, will begin to make the transition from President Obama's avid supporters to his watchful critics.



Indeed, it is a proud moment and we should savor it, but the debacle that has haunted us for the past eight years steadily looms over this country like a vindictive dark cloud, threatening to spoil the departure from our past selves that we have fought for so valiantly and with such urgency. We cannot forget what the fear mongering, smear tactic politics, and over zealous religious propaganda have done to our underlying belief: "…with liberty and justice for ALL." We loomed on the verge of dictatorship with the whims and illusions of a small group of men guiding the fate of not only a nation, but of an entire world of people who were doomed to endure our unrelenting crusade for freedom, which, ironically, made us SLAVES to our own schizophrenic-like paranoia and fear.



That being said, I am ready to be a "true patriot" again: I'm ready to criticize President Obama; ready to openly disagree without being called un-American and unpatriotic; I am ready to scrutinize his decisions and question his policies without being afraid that I will be called a traitor. Likewise, I am willing to listen to his reasoning and try to understand his perspectives, because, frankly, he has EARNED that right. When he speaks, I'm going to listen, and I'm going to hope; hope that in six months, two, maybe three, years, he still gives me hope; because that is what a president is supposed to do. In our darkest hour, sometimes all we need is someone to tell us that the silver lining is just ahead, and to encourage us to reach for it ourselves: to make the decision and, ultimately, the change...OURSELVES.



So, it seems, that we have an even bigger mountain to climb than the one it took to get a black man named Barrack Hussein Obama elected president in a country that, merely forty years ago, did not allow blacks and whites to drink from the same water fountain; and, as current as this last election season, exposed an underlying prejudice against an entire religion and culture because of the cowardly acts of a few men.



So, I'm ready if he is...and if you are. If the rest of the world is willing to let the ghosts of the past rest in their place, we can once again live on a planet, instead of just in a country.



So, I'm curious. Are you happy, sad, indifferent? How do you feel? Why? Let me know.