2009 Year in Review

Editorial

By far the biggest national, and maybe world news of last week was the inauguration of President Obama. Regardless of how you voted, or what you think of the man, he is our President now. If a President is judged on his first 100 days, then the first 10% of them should prove that he isn’t happy with the status quo. The first week has been filled with changes in policy and personnel. I don’t know if he is doing the right things, and he doesn’t KNOW that either. But he is making changes, which is what it is going to take to turn this great ship called the United States of America in a better direction.

Now, before you start thinking that I am suggesting that all the woes of the country were caused by President Bush, let me tell you that I don’t think that. Running this country takes a team of a lot of people. I guess that team includes all of us including local government and our actions as citizens. Our housing crises was not created by our former President alone. Yes, some of the Bush administration’s policies included deregulating much of our banking system. But let’s not ignore all of the people who took out loans for houses that they simply couldn’t afford. Let’s not ignore the loan officers who gave them those loans. What about the loss of jobs which meant that some people could no longer afford their homes? There is plenty of blame to go around.

Some would say that one of the President’s goals should be to improve racial relations in this country since he’s partially a man of color. I would argue (and I think he may too) that his election proves that this country has overcome many of those obstacles. I do not think that this country elected him because of his color. He was elected because he represents hope.

One of the things he is already tackling is our relations with the rest of the world. Right or wrong, our involvement in Iraq has damaged the way that the world looks at the U.S.. I’m not saying that we cannot or should not use our mighty nation to right some of the wrongs in this world. We cannot turn a blind eye to some of the terrible things that happen nor the aggressors who threaten to change our way of life here. I also don’t think that we improve our foreign relations with giving handouts to every country with a problem. We have some pretty serious problems of our own. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The other problem is obviously the economy, like I mentioned before. This is a tough one with a lot of variables. What do we do about the loss of our manufacturing base in this country? How do we get good paying jobs for everyone when we don’t make most of what we use? Should the wealthy be taxed more or less? Should we try to spend our way out of this problem, or balance the budget? How do we get people to spend money again, especially on big ticket items like houses and cars? How do we get them the money to spend? How do we train those without skills without employers who are willing to train them? What about the costs of healthcare and education?

What about tariffs for imports? The possibilities are endless, and it can make your head spin. However, when things are bad, sometimes decisions are a bit easier. Make a change. If it works, keep doing it. If it makes things worse (and how much worse would it really get), then stop doing it. The good thing for our new President is that there is a bunch of room for improvement. That’s a great position to be in, because there are lots of ways to become a hero! Regardless of my political views, I hope that this man can solve some problems and be a hero. It would be good for all of us if he did.

Have a great week.

by Ben Wolf, Guest Columnist
January 28, 2009