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12/31/2008
Meyer: Resolve to not reinvent government still again
New Year’s resolutions are more fleeting than is vain glory. Go to any health club the first week in January and observe all the people...people...people! Go back and take a head count the week after Easter (or even the 1st of February!) and you will see a sparse grouping of "regulars," the empty elliptical machines a testimony to numerous couch potatoes having migrated back to their original calling.
Yet, it is still the time of year that naturally inclines itself to a somewhat healthy preoccupation and emphasis on renewal.
I did not vote for Barrack Obama and neither am I excited at his regime coming into power within a few weeks. But I am not so foolish and spiteful that I desire he fail miserably at the expense of the economic welfare of many Americans. Obama must succeed in reversing America's economic woes or we could be in for an extended season of economic doldrums. That is too high a price to pay just to assure that he will fail in a 2012 reelection bid.
While Obama's simple theme of "hope" sufficiently captured the limited imaginations of many voters, we can see the folly of numerous campaign slogans in retrospect. Think of the laughable claim to the "most ethical administration in history," the tone deaf promise of the "new tone," or even the vacuous and superficial theme of "change."
The point is that it will be wise to assume that most campaign promises will be broken, or that they will be legislatively impossible to implement. Business as usual will replace hopeful change before long.
With that understanding it might be best to find agreement with the ancient philosopher who suggested that "He who would reform the world had best start with himself." That said, for me this will be a season, not so much to make new resolutions, as it will be a time to rededicate myself to the things I'm already doing, but where the execution has gotten sloppy.
If we accomplished that much on the political front, we would be in relatively good shape.
Robert E. Meyer, Fox Valley
COMMENTS
I am concerned that he will KEEP his promises of "change", but that the change we get will not be good for the citizens of the country.
emily matthews (Wed Dec 31 17:56:59 2008)
Limited imagination, interesting observation. Lets review what the last administration expansive imagination brought us. Nation building for starters, and a war that has consumed the lives of over 4000 American and left wounded over 30,000 Americans. A depleted and broken military. An international reputation in ruins. A squandered opportunity for action and goodwill in the wake of 911. A deregulated investment and monetary system that has bankrupt the nation. The highest unemployment rate in decades. Global warming issues. New Orleans in ruins. Intelligent design vs. evolution. A nation that is the laughing stock of the scientific community guided by flat earth thinking. A "decider" president whose decisions were guided by perhaps the most evil and misdirected advisors in the history of the country. Erosion of our basic rights to privacy and freedom. The end of habeas corpus as a fundamental rule of law. Torture as a method of interrogation setting a new low for civility and decency. God there is just no end to the imagination of the last republican administration. All we have left is the ingenuity of the American People and a little hope. My prayer is that this new Obama led administration has the grace, dignity, intelligence and capacity to lead us out of the current mess the imagination of the last administration inflicted on our great nation.
billie (Thu Jan 01 09:15:12 2009)
Billie, I make no apology for the last admin. However, I do not see the O-man making any real changes to the status quo as far as the government is run. Why else would he appoint a Monsanto man to Agriculture?!?
I do, however, see him perhaps making changes in the size and scope of government (even bigger), which can only be a bad thing. The best government is LIMITED, and none of the politicians of the two old worn-out parties gets that point.
emily matthews (Thu Jan 01 12:43:24 2009)
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