This article caught my eye in the Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/
It was written back in 1991, 18 years ago if you can believe (I certainly am a little incredulous). In 18 years, almost nothing has changed in America. Through three presidents, we're almost in exactly the same mess. Now certainly, the world is always changing slightly, but essentially we're in the very same mess now that we were 18 years ago. We're in a recession, we've got folks stuck in Iraq, and America is more or less lost in the sauce.
Right there in the last few months of the presidential campaign last year, there seemed to be the kind of activism, the desire for a better world, the understanding that a common effort could result in common good coming from both side of the political spectrum. People started playing those old songs form the 60's again, started playing them un-ironically. For a moment there were people marching the in the street, the fortunate sons were out in mass, and the times, they were a'changing. Then, a year later, we're really in pretty much the same place we were a year ago. We're still struggling with that same basic moral questions, not even about what's right, but rather, "Is it ok to say something's wrong, or is it un-American to hope for a better world? Is it un-American to be afraid of moving? Can right be done under the sun?"
Obama's acting 99% exactly like Bush. The election didn't mean anything, really (except maybe it kept things from getting worse, maybe. And maybe it changed what could be done in the future). So, the kind of frustration the writer of that article feels, I get that.
But I love this country, as screwy as it can be. It's full of people, and Christ is working on them day by day, and maybe that means something too.
But you know what hope looks like? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
Whatever else you can say about that guy, he's not giving up, and he doesn't care he's doing it alone. There's a guy I'd like to talk to.
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