No. The Second Coming is not at hand.
The hype surrounding Barak Obama's ascendancy to the Presidency reminds one of how the Second Coming might look if it was produced by Hollywood.
Not surprisingly, in an environment of gloom and doom, people will look for hope.
Obama emerged at exactly the right time to give millions something to hang onto when the world seemed to be crashing down around them.
His voice and words are inspirational. He is a preacher coming from a long line of people who could point the way to the Promised Land and get us marching through the desert on the road to a better place. Martin Luther King proclaimed he had a dream, and many followed through decades of struggle to see that dream start to become reality. We need those inspirational voices to keep us on the high road.
We are a unique society and nation. To be an "American" is not to be white or Protestant, or some ethnic identity like most nations. To be an American is to share a set of dreams and values.
One of those American dreams is that all of us are created equal with the opportunity to rise above where we were born and become whoever our potential is through hard work and sacrifice. Obama is a symbol to many of the truth of that belief. That he was elected says a lot about who we really are as Americans. That is good.
But we have not obviously arrived in the Promised Land. And we have not obviously fully realized the American Dream.
It is still a work in progress. We still have many things to do to make this country a whole lot better for everyone.
We need inspirational leaders and voices like Obama to keep us on the high road to achieve our dreams.
So, not surprisingly, there are expectations that Obama is this year's leader to the Promised Land..
But, if you listen to Obama's message, it is clear he is turning the mirror back onto us for the work that needs to be done to make America a better place.
He is not pretending to be the Savior. He is saying we have to save ourselves.
Obama is telling us that we must struggle to be more and better than we are. He is calling us to roll up our sleaves and get to work. He is not promising everything is going to magically get better just because he's in office now.
Many aren't listening to his message. Probably they will be disappointed when they realize that the Second Coming was a creation of the media.
Obama said put away childish things. Grow up. Quit all the sniping and partisan bickering.
When Biden made his nasty little joke about Chief Justice Robert's goofing up the oath of office, Obama reached over and took Biden by the elbow and clearly radiated his disapproval of the cheap shot. Wouldn't that be a change in Washington if people took the high road instead of the low road? Wouldn't it be nice if the people in power acted like grown ups?
It is clear Obama is making many major changes in the direction our federal government is going. This shouldn't be a surprise. Even John McCain agreed that torture wasn't worth the trouble it caused. Arnold Schwarzenegger even agreed with Obama's switch in favor of states setting CO2 standards. The partisan divide is being erased.
Putting some parental supervision over our financial markets seems like a good idea in the wake of the economic meltdown. It is a Golidlocks problem...not too much regulation, not too little.
But the federal government wasn't alone in getting us into the mess we're in. Each of us have our own degrees of responsibility here.
If we're going to look to the federal government to solve all our problems, that would be a big mistake. We are responsible for our own decisions and consequences. That's part of Obama's message.
I'm guessing that after a while, people are going to see Obama more like the stern parent than a Savior. And a lot of people aren't going to like dealing with a parent instead of a Savior.
For too long we've defaulted out responsibility for this country and this society to others. It's our country and it's our society to make of it what we will.
No. Obama is not the Savior. Obama is not the Second Coming. He's just a guy trying to inspire the rest of us to reach inside ourselves to bring out the good that is in all of us. And he's telling us to take responsibility for our own actions.