Last night, outgoing President Barack Obama gave his farewell address, showing once again a rhetorical fluency and call for seeing the larger picture, even as the immediate field seems to be cluttered with potential chaos and ethical dilemmas.
I know these very characteristics of his public persona in times like this are sometimes the very reasons why people don’t like him and didn’t like or trust Clinton, but I do.
Sure, he did not do all that I wished he would do during his two terms in office, and I worry about how the new administration will boomerang the important policies of the last eight years. I’m doubling my support for my senator, Elizabeth Warren, to be the critic I know she can be, and the voice for the middle class and struggling Americans. But Obama’s words about the larger ideas of America … I needed that.
When Obama first was elected, I wrote and recorded this song as a way to think about the promise of the years ahead. I’m not sure we got there.
Peace (in these words and more),
Kevin
Thanks for this Kevin. Breathing deep more often these days and keeping the hope for change alive.
It’s not easy to remain hopeful. I’m trying.