What really matters?

Regardless of who is in the Oval Office--and how competent he/she may be--there are going to be people in this nation who have nothing better to do than complain.

I'm glad that Barack H Obama is the President of the United States. I'm glad for several reasons:

1) Our nation needed to finally cross the "bridge" of the caucasian male occupying the most important office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Granted, President Obama is 50% caucasian, and he's not ashamed of that. Nor should he be. He has a great heritage, from Kansas to Kenya...with a little Hawaii and Chicago thrown in for good measure.

2) We need(ed) a fresh voice to represent these United States of America. We need(ed) a family man with small children, who can relate to all the "families" out there with younger children..and what it takes to properly raise those children into productive, contributing adults to their world and society at large. Barack and Michelle Obama are great examples of parents to other parents.

3) We need(ed) someone of "color" to show the Black, Latino, and other "minorities" in the United States that "success" is within reach of everyone--not just the Anglo-Saxon Caucasian male. For too long, the blacks and hispanics have blamed the "caucasians" for their lack of "power" "success" and whatever else they want to blame on the white male. Now that the President of the United States is at least 50% black (and 50% white), the "vocal minorities" have NO excuse and NO REASON to blame everyone else for their "hard places" in life. President Obama has lived through those "hard places." He has succeeded. It IS possible.

4) My generation is finally represented in the White House. The President is only a year older than myself....he knows what the "teenagers in the 70s" went through...He is aware of the turbulent 80s, and how contemporary culture has been largely influenced by the last two decades of greed, graft, and gall. He is no stranger to what has most shaped our country and the world.

5) The "Religious right" which is so often "very wrong" must now lean on the Lord for His power and wisdom in the nation. I believe our President to be a Christian, and a brother in the Lord. He has a different worldview than many in the "conservative evangelical" wing of the Church...but then again, I'm not so sure that Christ is a "conservative evangelical" Himself!

6) What really matters in this nation? I believe that we must return to the place where GREED is no longer good...where "neighbors" are in vogue again, and where God's people are known as the most trustworthy, compassionate, and dependable people in contemporary society.

So what really matters?