I Dreamed a Dream

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."  Eleanor Roosevelt 

I began this year with great hopes of social progress, economic recovery and the restoration of America's image internationally.  We were going to have a new president, one whom I admired both for his oratory as well as his ideas.  One who stood in stark contrast to the bleakness, despair, secrecy and questionable moral and ethical values of the out-going administration.

After the election, I said that Mr. Obama had won mainly on one issue:  hope.  He talked about a hope tempered by the reality that nothing would be easy, but that he firmly believed the greatest country in the history of the world could solve its financial problems, expand social justice, restore our country's position in the world and be moral, ethical and open without compromising security.

He promoted an ambitious agenda, and one that I supported whole-heartedly.  After 8 years of psychic darkness, I kept remembering the little girl's mother in "Poltergeist":  "Run to the light, baby. Mommy is in the light."  Like many others, I ran to the light.

The President definitively achieved one of those goals early on:  restoring America's stature internationally.  Europeans celebrated his election, as did others all over the world.  And once in office, he immediately replaced unilateral bullying with multilateral diplomacy.

On other fronts, progress varies.  He used extraordinary means to avert a financial crisis that would have been worse than the Great Depression.  Had the government not intervened, even the largest banks would have probably failed, GM and Chrysler would have sank and taken Ford with them and ordinary citizens would have seen their retirement investments become worthless.

However, his policies and actions have received a mixed reaction.  Some say it's not the government's place to prop up the private sector.  Others say it's not enough.  That more needs to be done.  Both sides are right, but there’s only one practical solution:  limited and targeted federal money to keep the entire economy from collapsing.

As far as torture goes, his prohibition of it also garnered mixed reviews.  The far right spins it as losing a tool to combat terrorism, when, in reality, the use of torture produces almost no benefit and creates many problems.

First, torture provides very little useful information. Second, it reduces our country to the level of the enemy.  It makes us as bad as them.  Third, it's illegal under the Geneva Convention.  Fourth, it lowers our country's stature internationally.  Most importantly, it's just plain wrong.

On the social justice agenda, health care reform leads the bill.  It remains as contentious as it has been for the last 50 or 60 years.  And while some might not see it as a social justice issue, it is and always has been.  It raises the question of whether life and death should be determined by the size of ones pocketbook.

As far as the year goes, it's been a mixed bag.  Some things are better; some are worse.

The economy didn't implode, but unemployment and foreclosures remain unacceptably high.  Health care reform will pass, but it might end up looking like Frankenstein's monster.  The right and the left will remain as far apart as they ever have been.

Still, I have hope.  I hang on always.  Sometimes only by my fingernails.  But I hang on.

On many fronts, it's been a very bleak year.  On others, not so bad.  Bold and unprecedented moves by the government stabilized the economy.  We are no longer teetering on the precipice of an unprecedented depression.

Health care reform will happen, but the shape it takes remains dubious, at best.  The economy hangs by a thread:  any upset in the markets could precipitate another sell-off that puts us three steps back.  Problems in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen and/or Pakistan could explode.

Still, I hold onto hope.  In the absence of guarantees, it’s what I have.

Mr. Roosevelt understood one principle that Mr. Obama understands:  monetary policy can only go so far to heal a nation.  Healing comes through hope and faith.  Roosevelt held the country’s hand through a depression and a world war.  Obama is doing much the same.

Some say that our president is over-exposed in the media, but I would argue that, in times of crisis, people want to know what’s going on.  That means keeping them informed, and not through leaks to selected press outlets.

In the end, I cling to hope.  We’re all living in scary times, and we’re all in the same boat that might sink any minute now.

And yet I believe that things will be better tomorrow than they were today.  Naive, perhaps.  But I refuse to believe otherwise until I see otherwise.

In the midst of it all, a 47 old British woman walked out on stage and stunned the world.  For a few minutes, I forgot that the stock market had crashed, that we were fighting two intractable wars in the middle east,  that the only thing that remained certain was uncertainty. And when she finished, I found my faith in hope reaffirmed.

Hope can move mountains.  It can elect a black president (something I never thought I would see in my lifetime).  It can turn the stock market around.  It can make a frumpy middle-aged woman a star.

Most importantly, it helps me sleep at night.