Are We On The Cusp Of Big Change?

With Barack Obama's presidential victory still less than 1 week old, it's already beginning to feel like true change - as opposed to "change as a campaign slogan" - may actually be in the wind. I've watched a lot of news programs over the past week, where naturally the focus has been on the President-Elect. Much of the talk about Obama's upcoming appointments (eg. cabinet positions, among others) involves some mention of how he's a believer in putting the "best and brightest" people into key positions. This contrasts so sharply with the Bush-Cheney approach of lining up "yes men" as to almost be painful when reflecting on how badly things have gone over the past 8 years.

Along those lines, I found this Freakonomics blog article to be particularly interesting. It talks about how the financial sector is currently downsizing as a result of the meltdown underway in that industry, meaning that lots of very smart, motivated and energetic men and women are going to - whether they want to or not - move into other areas of the work force that will almost certainly benefit from their infusion. That may be bad news for the people impacted, but good news for the world at large.

I've also heard people say that having a black president of the U.S., especially one who's gotten where he has on the strength of what he says and does, rather than family ties, political bargaining or any sort of affirmative action program, can't help but improve the chances of keeping more young minority males in school longer. Obama had so many knocks against him before he even started - black, mixed race parents, foreign sounding name, running against the clear Democratic forerunner who'd already been all but crowned the nominee - that it really ought to put the boot to most excuses that anyone might use to explain not trying their best. Young blacks, for example, no longer have to rely on high profile professional athlete or rapper as their only available role models... being intelligent may, once again, have some cache associated with it (whereas the Bush administration seemed to actively eschew such things, as pointed out in the Freakonomics blog post linked to above).

While it's still a bit of a longshot - perhaps as long as Obama's chances at winning the Presidency, come to think of it! - we really might be on the verge of turning a corner and moving toward a better future. And I don't think that's a feeling that many people have expressed over the past several years.