a new day

Already the pundits are at work dissecting--was it a memorable, historical speech? Does Justice Roberts' blunder make any difference? But all I know is that, for the first time in more than 8 years, I can watch our president speak and not cringe. I can listen and feel proud. I can be inspired for the hard work to come. It seems like we've reclaimed some sober, conscious, optimistic, measured, idealistic leadership in the world. Even if this weren't a historic day because of our president's race, it feels like a momentous one of reclaiming the right American values of thrift, hard work, sacrifice, and moral responsibility after so many years of neoconservative parsing of domestic and international law so that we could "legally" do unspeakable things, all behind an unprecedented veil of secrecy. Tomorrow there will be political decisions. Likely there will be moments of failure and compromise and falling short of what we believe is possible. But today, I'm terribly optimistic.