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but this has to be kept up once Obama takes office. Making voters feel as if their concerns and opinions count for something is what got him elected in the first place and this feeling amongst the people must continue to be fostered if he truly wishes to retain their support and change this country.

At home, the administration needs to show how well they have been listening by responding first to the concern that got most of us to the polls on Election Day: the current economic crisis. While this is a general phrase that involves several interrelated issues, it's clear that it was when this problem literally started to hit home, causing people to lose their jobs and their houses, that we saw a real shift in the polls. To get our economy moving again, Obama needs to focus not only on financial markets but on individual Americans, concentrating above all on creating more jobs in a variety of sectors. Creating jobs will help people to help themselves, allowing them to once again support their families and enabling people now in need of government assistance in the form of food stamps, unemployment and other services to lift themselves up and out of those programs. It will also give a visible boost to the new administration, giving people faith in its ability to respond to the many other problems we face.

The president-elect also needs to refocus our funds and our efforts onto scientific research, displaying a renewed support for the testing and proving of facts, rather than a reliance solely on belief. Stubbornly denying scientific conclusions (and political realities) when it's suited the current agenda has done nothing but demolish our image in the eyes of the world and dig us deeper into the hole of dependence on foreign oil and less helpful healthcare. Obama needs to show the people he governs and the world at large that he will not be one to hide his head in the sand by encouraging new scientific endeavors and the availability of their results to everyone.

In a similar vein, Obama needs to prove that the diplomacy and open conversation of issues he promised to bring back to our government can indeed encourage warmer feelings towards the United States and garner more support for its policies than in our recent past. Part of running an unguarded and trustworthy government is winning back people around the globe as well as those at home. Simply being visible doesn't solve problems, but it can project an image of confidence- an image that is very appealing to citizens right now, especially given the lack of confidence by the current administration in its final weeks.

In the end, it is crucial to remember that, despite the Bush administration's attempts over the last eight years to wear away at this basic freedom, a lack of secrecy and access to information about our own government is essential to maintaining an open, free and truly democratic society. Without the ability to access the truth, citizens of any nation are left only with superficial slogans about what their country is doing, and a mutual trust between government and governed is impossible. It is also then impossible to make any kind of educated choice about our leaders and the direction we wish them to take our country if reality is always being sealed off and restricted from our view.

Learn more about this author, Lauren Haslett.
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