Everything changes at some point. I'd say this is a pretty well known fact of life.
Yet as I watched all of the news segments on the upcoming inauguration before, there were still people attempting to ruin the excitement and optimism of this huge, historical event. Specifically, these were some older people, maybe in their 60s or 70s, who said that they didn't care at all about the political change. It didn't matter to them - to people who are citizens of this country just like the rest of us, whether we voted or not. Okay, so maybe you voted for John McCain, or were one of those who supported Hillary, but neither of them made it. Move on and hope for the best at that point. After all, I'd say most people would agree that things can only get better without Bush. Improvement will probably be slower in coming than a lot of Americans would like it to be, but at least there's a better chance of it with Obama taking office on Tuesday.
Of course there's a chance that I'm biased in this situation. I voted for Obama, but I didn't just vote for him because I'm a young person just out of college who only considers Democrats. I voted for him because I really believe that he's the best shot we have at creating a brighter future for the country and the rest of the world. But we can't even begin to create a brighter future without changing the way things are right now. People are losing their jobs at a drastically high rate, more and more kids can't afford a college education, stocks are unstable, the housing market is still in a rough position - how can any of this get better if we don't change something?
I just don't understand how anyone who lives in the United States and sees what's happening can know about all of these issues and not care at all. Granted, there appear to be more people who are waiting and ready to embrace changes, but then there are others who seem to think that it's impossible for the country to be prosperous again. I mean, there are people coming to Washington, D.C. from all over the world to be a part of this inauguration, and they're excited about it! Doesn't that show how significant this is? Doesn't it show how much this one presidency could affect the path that we're on right now? Doesn't it show how much hope has been restored just because of one person? Sure, we have to see Obama's work before we can create a valid opinion of him, but there's never anything wrong with changing things that aren't working, and there's certainly nothing wrong with believing that it's possible to make them better.
Think about it - without change, this country wouldn't have gone from 13 colonies to 50 states. We wouldn't have our own government without its hard-working founders who wanted to change the lives they knew before they came here. We wouldn't have faster, more accurate technology if no one was willing to work on changes for it. This will probably sound horribly cliche, but change is the only constant that anyone ever has in life. If everything stayed the same, no one would ever grow old enough to vote on who will be the next person running our country... it would be like living through the same day over and over again. What's the point of that?
Apathy is a disgusting thing, especially when it comes to events like the one we're anticipating this week - the start of something that we'll be working through for the next 4 years, at least. Over that course, I'm expecting big differences. I'm not sure if they'll be positive or negative, but time will tell. But if we don't take the opportunity to change the mess we're in right now, we'll never know if it could work, if millions of people could live more comfortably and feel more secure.
Wouldn't that be a great change?
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