Godspeed, President Barack Obama

Once again we have sworn in a new president, the ninth such ceremony during my lifetime. Every one is different, but every one is also the same. There is the song of hope. Hope that the government will do right by its people, and also the hope that the people will do right for each other and the nation.

I have a little more hope this time than I did eight years ago. Not because of political policies so much, but because this new president seems to believe in the people a little more deeply than his immediate predecessor. In the end, it’s the people who are in charge of America, and not any one person sitting in a strangely-shaped office on Pennsylvania Avenue. If the president believes in us, then it’s so much easier to work to merit that belief.

Of the nine new presidents that have taken the oath of office since I was born, this is the first time that the commander-in-chief is younger than I am (only by a few months, but still). And I think that is good. Though his curriculum vitae might not be as long as some, the fact that the new president has young children who will have to live with the policies he puts in place during his tenure can only help. When you govern with an eye to the effects on our posterity, both historical and personal, you can’t help but govern in true faith and allegiance to the ideals of the country.

So, I say godspeed, President Obama. You are braving rough waters in a skiff made of paper, but in our history, we’ve managed to forge some very powerful paper indeed.