20 January 2009

An Historic Day

I debated for a while about posting on Inauguration Day. I have my own personal opinions regarding the new president, but in the interest of keeping this blog relatively politically neutral, I'm going to compromise by posting this BBC article on the outlook for Obama's environmental policy:

BBC News: Scientists optimistic over Obama

I think they are maybe being a little bit too optimistic, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see. The president, as much as I don't like to admit it, does have a major influence on the world, and especially where the money goes, so it may be we see a lot more investment in "green" jobs and technology, as Obama has promised. Certainly he'll be better than Bush in this category. But he will be influenced by lobbyists, like all politicians, and the biggest lobbyists are still by far the oil companies. So I'm not holding my breath.

I think the most important thing for us to do, on this rather historic day, is to remember that no matter who is in office the power is in the hands of PEOPLE, and it is our responsibility to remain vigilant, and call out the people in power on their actions, regardless of their promises for change. If we do not remain ready to act then we'll find the change may not be quite in the direction we hoped for. A new president is not an excuse for us to stop fighting for that which we hold dear.

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