It's now Obama's time

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
19th century French writer Jean-Baptiste Karr.

Beware of complacency everyone. Now that Barack Obama is the President Elect of the United States there's a strong possibility of relaxation. The power of Obama's campaign was its freshness and call for hope. There's a feeling that one man can lead the United States, still the premier power in the world today, in a new direction that heals the wounds of the past and sets a new agenda for the future. Obama adopted hope and change as his own... and now it's time to find out if he's up to the job.

Make no mistake - Obama is a politician. He's a US politician and will soon be the President, still likely the most powerful person in the world. His ethnicity and speaking skills aren't going to solve anything. His personal story is wonderful, but let's not let his powerful voice and all the congratulatory backslapping drown out the very real issues facing America and the world.

The legacy of George W. Bush is set in stone. Nothing can change what happened to the world in the last eight years. The burden of dealing with the blowback from nearly a decade of criminal incompetence now falls to Obama.

Step up to the plate, Barack. Let's see how you deal with Afghanistan, for instance. Because while the last minutes of the campaign were unfolding on Monday in North America, half a world away NATO war planes bombed an Afghan wedding, killing anywhere from 20 to 90 civilians, mostly women and children, and injuring many others. A US Forces media shill apologized for any innocent deaths.

This isn't the first wedding NATO has crashed with bombs and sadly it likely won't be the last. But why intrude on Obama with such depressing news during a time of celebration?

President Obama, take the podium, please. Afghanistan and Iraq are now your problems to solve and beautiful speeches aren't going to be enough. No country is indiscriminately dropping bombs on weddings in America. No country is sending commandos across the border into the US to fight terrorists. No other country so blatantly ignores international law quite like Obama's America.

And those are just some of the international problems facing President Obama. He also has a series of crippling domestic problems to deal with: a hideous environmental record, slave labour, a gap between rich and poor as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon, an economy built on consumerism and borrowing money to pay for yesterday's mistakes.

Forty years ago the United States suffered through one of the most brutally violent periods in its long and violent history. Robert Kennedy assassinated. Martin Luther King assassinated. Riots. The Chicago Democratic Convention. Maybe Obama will be a harbinger of change and at least the first steps towards a better future for everyone will begin.

Or Obama will fail to deliver. The campaign is over. The work begins. The same microscopic intensity that has to this point been focused on Dubya Bush and his cronies must now switch to Obama and his cronies. Trying, at this point, will not be enough.

Mr. Change and his team better have a plan. The world will certainly be watching and only time will tell if all we'll see is more of the same.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.