It calls for patience
I've seen a couple of things recently from Facebook expressing concerns and outrage about Obama's work thus far, mostly related to the stimulus package. I've thought about this and I think we - humans - have such a desire for immediate solutions and we - Americans - have such a need for quick fixes that people are not seeing the forest for the trees on some stuff.
One person pulled a partial quote from Sen Lindsey Graham something about "the President is AWOL on leadership". The whole quote is Lindsey Graham criticizing Obama b/c he was doing a press junket (sp) instead of talking to Republican leadership about the stimulus. Well, the way I understand it is the citizens who vote are the republican leadership and the democratic leadership. This doesn't seem so far fetched to me. Obama won the election with a huge % of the electorate which plays right into his need and desire to take his position and explanation to the general public and they will, in turn, let their reps know what to do...
There was another person who pointed to some parts of the stimulus that seem questionable as to the immediate need. I do understand that the priority needs to be placed on creating jobs and alleviating the fear that builds with every day's finance reports but we have to tackle some long term issues like replacing gov't vehicles with fuel efficient ones, or making sure that the arts are supported by funding the National Endowment for the Arts.
Our gut says now but our brain has to say now and future. We have to proceed in such a way that we work to alleviate future costs and fears. I am not naïve enough to think that this is all good and I'm sure if given the opportunity I could come up with reasonable, viable solutions that weren't considered or find things that need to be removed b/c they don't work or are unnecessary. Although it seems like it happened in one fell swoop this situation has been developing for years and we did nothing to stop it. Now we are in panic mode. Now to a lot of people no solution will be sufficient.
We won't get out of this anytime soon but as a citizen of this country and a member of this society I am going to do my part to watch diligently, speak patiently and act justly (on an individual basis as well as national and global).
One person pulled a partial quote from Sen Lindsey Graham something about "the President is AWOL on leadership". The whole quote is Lindsey Graham criticizing Obama b/c he was doing a press junket (sp) instead of talking to Republican leadership about the stimulus. Well, the way I understand it is the citizens who vote are the republican leadership and the democratic leadership. This doesn't seem so far fetched to me. Obama won the election with a huge % of the electorate which plays right into his need and desire to take his position and explanation to the general public and they will, in turn, let their reps know what to do...
There was another person who pointed to some parts of the stimulus that seem questionable as to the immediate need. I do understand that the priority needs to be placed on creating jobs and alleviating the fear that builds with every day's finance reports but we have to tackle some long term issues like replacing gov't vehicles with fuel efficient ones, or making sure that the arts are supported by funding the National Endowment for the Arts.
Our gut says now but our brain has to say now and future. We have to proceed in such a way that we work to alleviate future costs and fears. I am not naïve enough to think that this is all good and I'm sure if given the opportunity I could come up with reasonable, viable solutions that weren't considered or find things that need to be removed b/c they don't work or are unnecessary. Although it seems like it happened in one fell swoop this situation has been developing for years and we did nothing to stop it. Now we are in panic mode. Now to a lot of people no solution will be sufficient.
We won't get out of this anytime soon but as a citizen of this country and a member of this society I am going to do my part to watch diligently, speak patiently and act justly (on an individual basis as well as national and global).
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