Music, Lyrics and Larry King
As I listened to President Obama in his first address to a joint session of Congress since taking his post just 5 weeks ago, I was listening in two ways. First, for the music. His overall tone. It needed to be strong and upbeat. Enough with the Donny Downer we’ve met since the inaguration. With our votes we bought into change for this nation. No one expects it to be easy, brief, or anything but a multi-year work in progress. But rather than hearing Yes We Can for the past month, the tone of the conversation has changed to Maybe …. Ummm …. I Think So …. We’ll See ….. Enough. Thankfully, President Obama found his voice again tonight:
But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.
The other thing I was looking for was lyrics — the outline, the information, the plan that tells us specifically how we are going to get from today’s rotten economic times to the strength of tomorrow. He gave me some of that — $2500 for college (but is it per child or per year?), $2000 in average mortgage relief — but not enough. What’s the plan for fixing the banks? How is that going to happen? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was front and center. I suppose we’ll have to wait to hear more from him on that account.
So as I pack up to head to Larry King’s show to discuss what just went on, a few things on my mind:
- Healthcare, energy and education. If you’re looking for a job, the President was very clear that this was where he intends to invest our money during his administration. I’d put my focus there.
- Personal responsibility. He will work on fixing the nation’s economy. It’s still up to all of us to fix our own personal economies at home.
- Resilience. The difference between those people who suffer through the next four years and those who succeed is going to be resilience. We need to learn to dig deep enough within ourselves to keep trying, not give up, and when something is not working have the stamina, fortitude and yes — resilience — to try something else until it does.
