President Barack Obama

I watched the Inauguration of Barack Obama with a lump in my throat, because I realized that I was witnessing something that would go down in the history books as one of the momentous events in the history of the world. Yes, the world, not just the United States of America. The fact that a black man whose father was not allowed in a restaurant frequented by white people not that many years ago could become the President of the mightiest country in the world was historic in itself, but I believe that President Barack Obama has a greater ambition than just being the most powerful man on Earth. He has a vision that will bring about great changes, not all of them popular with some people. It won’t happen overnight; many people will be disappointed and wonder if they made the right choice when they voted for him, but he has a difficult job ahead of him. There will be those who will try their best to make sure he fails, those whose toes he has to step on, those who want to control him, those who want to keep things the way they are. The greedy and the power-hungry who brought the economy of the world to the gloomy state where it is right now will want him gone. The enemies of the free world want him gone. Not everybody voted for him for their own reasons. Many are afraid to have a black president, afraid of what he might do to upset the status quo. That is the chance you take every time a new president is elected, no matter what his color.
The color of President Barack Obama’s skin should not matter; what matters is his charisma and his vision. Our world is facing an uncertain future and we need men like him. Men who are not afraid to change things, men who don’t abuse the power they have been given by waving a sword in front of them but reach out with an open hand, offering help instead of threats.
Maybe this will usher in a new and better world. Let’s hope so.