One Year Later

It is a new year and this in not the change I thought I would be celebrating on the first anniversary of the election of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America!!

I agree that the disappointing election results in November 09 and January 10 show deep discontent with the pace and type of change that is going on. Main Street is hurting and those off Main Street are destitute; while wall street is at the feeding trough. I know that a majority of the African American community share's that frustration.

I am among those who believe any change worth making is hard and as Fredrick Douglas said power will fight you at every turn [or something like that]. The sting of this first year on the Road to Recovery has been with setbacks along the way.

Our country continues to face the same fundamental challenges it faced yesterday. Wall Street and its fellow travelers still needs to be held accountable; though not in the way that some expect. We still need to create good jobs and enlist, willingly or not, Wall Street in helping Main Street. And we still need to continue building a energy economy that is both clean and free of foreign entanglements in the Middle East.

We are not walking away from this President and we expect him not to walk away from the challenges listed below [not necessarily in the order listed].

1. Abortion
2. African Union
3. Afghanistan War + Peace
4. Affirmative Action
5. African Growth and Opportunity Act Partners such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Liberia
6. Bailouts
7. Banks
8. Black + Brown America
9. Budget, taxes, and monetary policy
10. Canada
11. China
12. Organization of American States Partners such as Columbia, Brazil or Haiti
13. Civil liberties
14. Crime
15. Contraception and Sexual Politics
16. Drugs
17. Educational Policy: A National Plan to be the best by 2020
18. Engineering
19. Environment and energy
20. Erasing the Digital Divide
21. European Union
22. Homeland Security
23. Health care
24. Global Climate Change
25. Immigration
26. Intelligence
27. The Middle East + Israel
28. Islamic Investment through Kuwait and ending the Gulf + Iraq Wars
29. Main Street: Support for the Road to Economic Recovery
30. Marriage and Family Support
31. Lobbyist guidelines and ethics issues
32. Marijuana legalization
33. Mexicans and Mexico
34. Military and Intelligance Issues including service member support,
35. Minimum wage
36. Public Information and Media
37. Public Schools
38. Rouge and Failed States such as Somilia, Sudan, Syria, Iran and North Korea
39. Rural America
40. Russia
41. Social Security
42. South America
43. Sustainable Development
44. The Stans and Central Asia
45. Transportation
46. Urban America
47. Wall Street: Reregulation and Taxiation for the Industry
48. WMD and Arms Control
49. Womens Issues
50. Welfare reform

In fact, we are counting on his determination and resolve to be only stronger for real change - even firing people who don't get. We have had and will match that commitment with our own.

hershel daniels, junior