There are days when I leave the house in the morning and I feel as if the weight of the world is on my shoulders.
Bills, family, deadlines, responsibilities — all of it seems to gather together into one big ball of lead on my shoulders.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that saying — carrying the “weight of the world” — and I think there are only a handful of people you can honestly say carry the weight of the world.
One of them just took office on Tuesday.
Ever since his arrival on the national scene, Barack Obama has been heralded by some as some sort of savior, the man who is going to take everything that’s wrong and make it right again. Millions of Americans are pinning their hopes and dreams on this man, and I can only hope that he lives up to the hype.
Has any president taken office during such tumultuous times? Abraham Lincoln took over as the nation was plunging into a war with itself; Franklin Roosevelt entered office in the midst of the Great Depression; and Harry Truman took the oath as American soldiers were fighting and dying in Europe and the Pacific.
But these men were only facing one overwhelming problem; Obama, on the other hand, is facing an absolute tempest in terms of crises.
He has an economy on the brink of outright disaster, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the environment, Middle Eastern violence, our nation’s energy policy and the question of whether to prosecute those who may have tortured terror detainees.
I’m sure I missed a few things in that list, but you get the idea.
Not only that, he has to deal with the representatives of the extreme ends of the political spectrum: ultra conservatives who want to maintain the status quo and hard-core liberals who want retribution for eight years of George W. Bush.
Oh, and there’s also the pressure that’s likely to come with being the first president of African heritage in a country with a long, turbulent history on race.
If that were me, I’d be bolting for the door already. Obama’s going to lead a nation of 300 million people; I don’t think I’m even the leader of my own small household, which consists only of myself and two frisky felines.
So now, on his first full day in office — the parties are over and the transition is complete — I only have these few words for Obama:
Best of luck to you, Mr. President.
Jocelyn Robinson is copy editor for the Enterprise. She can be reached at jrobinson@heraldnet.com.
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