Oh yes we can

Warning: I am going to blabber on, and this might not make sense to anybody but me. That is the true luxury of blogging.

I am cynical by nature (or perhaps by nurture), but I have been filled with hope this year, this month, this week. It's as if recent events have ripped the lid off things that we have refused to address and have pretended, out of fear or laziness or disinterest, not to know.

I know that the problems of this country and this world are too complex for any one person to offer us quick solutions, but I feel reassured that, finally, we as a country are not going to simply look the other way. I hope for a future where it is no longer fashionable to be apathetic, where it is not admirable to be greedy, where we hold one another accountable and celebrate each other's achievements.

I believe that, if each of us individually will admit responsibility for our personal actions - my trash, my food, my response to the poor, my economic decisions, my behavior -- it will be change enough to rock the world. We cannot fix any of our problems until we admit that they are there. It is time to ask, what am I still pretending not to know?