bpope’s blog

We’re officially in the new era of Change.  Awesome.  What now?

I was thinking that this is an even better chance for resolutions than the new year.  After all, presidential inaugurations usually happen only every four or eight years, and are significantly more important.  The question, though, is what are we supposed to do?  Looking to our President’s inauguration speech:

It is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate…[T]hose values on which our success depends - hard work and honest, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old.  These things are true….What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the wolrd, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly…giving our all to a difficult task.

As far as I can tell, our President is asking us to simply be better people.  (Fortunately for Republicans, that sounds an awful lot like returning to small-town American values, right?)  But I’m looking for more specific things.  All of us are American ambassadors, and we have a duty to educate ourselves on the issues facing not only our towns and states, but our nation and the world.  In other words, America please stop being a nation composed largely of arrogant idiots.  Let’s tack greedy on their, too.  There are many important things to work on at many levels (energy independence, taking care of our own families, environmental stewardship, public service…the list goes on).  Find the tasks to which you are suited and pursue them with zeal.

My resolution to “ask what I can do for my country” as it were, is to educate myself on inter- and intra- national issues (or at least recognize my ignorance) and to use my engineering background to work towards a more sustainable future.  I hope that Americans choose to take up our President’s charge to work hard, rather than choosing to remain ignorant or pursue selfish goals.  How about you? What are your resolutions?