Dear America,

My fellow Americans, why such the fervor today?  As we stand at this historic(?) precipice, I ask you to consider this:  Why is today so historic?  I understand that Mr. Obama is about to become the first black President.  I get that.  But why is it cause for a 4-day, $170 million shindig in the middle of the economic times we are experiencing?  It boils down to this:  he hasn’t done anything yet.  So why are we celebrating?  Let me put this in perspecitve that I’m sure a lot of you can relate to.

Let’s say that a company has been around for 200 years.  It’s a very powerful company that controls the fate of a lot of businesses.  Let’s say it’s a financial institution.  The CEO of that company has always been an old white man.  Well, times are bad and sales have not been good.  The CEO has announced that he is leaving the company because some of the decisions he made were bad decisions.  The board of directors has elected a young, vibrant black man to be his successor.  A couple of months later, when the “change” is set to occur, the new CEO’s staff has decided to throw a huge party that the company can’t really afford.  Everyone is excited that change has occurred and that the new CEO is going to be the savior of the company.  All is right in the world.

My question is this:  Why is the company celebrating?  For all they know, the new CEO could come in and run the company into the ground.  The only thing we can celebrate for sure is that it’s someone new in leadership.  And that’s not really a celebration; it’s just change.  Something different.  Different doesn’t always equal better.

I am not an Obama hater.  I hope that he does right the ship we’re on.  I pray for the man and his administration.  And I think it is a great thing that we have moved past our history and elected a black man as president.  But if that’s why we are celebrating, shouldn’t that have occurred November 5, 2008?  People will try to equate this to Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  I think that is giving Mr. Obama a little more than he deserves.  I still think we have a little ways to go before Dr. King’s speech comes to fruition.  And I think we can get there.  Mr. Obama may play an important role in ushering it in quicker…but we don’t know yet.  I will ask everyone this, please go easy on the man.  That includes not building him up so much that no human could possibly live up to the expectations.

All I’m saying is give it 4 years and let’s see where we are.  If we are better off, I’ll jump on the band wagon and say, “Job well done, Mr. President.”  Until then, let’s all learn to be patient and not jump at the first sign of change.