The One Year Mark

It has been more than a year since this man made me cry. I have taken my "Yes We Did" poster down. The Kucinich for President banner is still hanging in my bedroom. A year ago, I watched Barack Obama take his place as President of the United States in suspended disbelief. On November 4th of 2008 I fell asleep in a daze, waking to joyfully cry into my cereal, and to tear up in Calculus as I announced that I could say truly for the first time that I was "proud to be an American." It was a time to be corny and patriotic, for eyes to glisten at what seemed like the holiest of times, the promises in the air tingling.

Maybe it was just the magic of living in New Haven, but much has changed since then. Or, to put it more succinctly, not enough has changed since then. The most magical of times has lost out to reality. How am I to clap my hands as loudly as I can and say "I believe in Obama"? He has more responsibility than Tinkerbell. And more power that he has used illy. He has convinced Congress to pass a bill that frustrated most Americans, and even he is not proud of handing money over, however temporarily, to big business. Health care reform would have been the strongest point of his first year, and he has not done his job, letting a watered-down bill through, and Americans will suffer as a result. His mythology can only take him so far.

Sorry for this...I'm just mad about the whole thing. What is he going to say in his State of the Union Address? He and the media are way past their honeymoon period.