Posted by
Jim Hunt on Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:00:00 AM
Yesterday I saw a picture from the White House. Five men: three former presidents, the current president and the next president, all standing together. Two things immediately came to my mind as I looked at that photograph.
The first was the thought that when the first of those presidents took office 32 years ago and the President-elect was anticipating his 16th birthday, one of the continuing news stories of the day was forced busing in Boston and the continued racial tensions there and elsewhere in the country. Now we have a black man about to become the most powerful man in the world. I might have preferred it be J.C. Watts, or Michael Steele or Condaleeza Rice but I cannot help to be proud that we as a people have come so far so fast after such an inexcusably long time.
The other fact that struck me is how special this country is in the way we manage these transitions. During this time of economic crisis and ongoing war, our country is undergoing a radical shift in leadership. Control is changing from one “faction” to another. But there is no bloodshed; no former leaders jailed or executed. No matter how much the parties may disagree, the current president will step down in 12 days and return to private life, respected and honored for the service he has given his country, just as his predecessors have been.
On January 20, 2009 Barack Hussein Obama will become the 44th President of the United States of America. Following a procedure designed over 200 years ago, a man who – had he lived at that time – might have been a slave, will take the oath of office and become the most powerful man in the world. Not be force of arms, but by the ballot box.
Whatever we may feel about President-elect Obama’s policies, he is about to become our president. He will become only the 44th man ever to hold that office and forever more he will join the rarified company of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, and all the others.
I am proud of a country that, despite our differences, despite our challenges, continues to move forward with peaceful transitions of power at the people’s will. I pray that it will always be thus. We should all pray for President-elect Obama and wish him a safe and successful term in office. We stand ready to oppose him when necessary using the tools our Founders gave us in the Constitution, but we also stand ready to support him just as firmly when it is appropriate to do so. Right, wrong or indifferent, he is about to become the President of United States. God Bless him and …
God Bless America