Hope that we might, the nightmare may not be over enough and the killing may continue, though with a different geographical emphasis. How much and what kind of "change" we see is yet unknowable. I'm still holding my breath thinking that it can't be as bad as it has been. I sincerely doubt however that it will be half as much as we have the audacity to hope for.

The Jaded Prole

The author's credibility sunk to zero when she wrote that "As Americans we all bear some responsibility for the last 8 years".

There are many Americans who do not engage in the destructive activities and lifestyle that most Americans engage in, and have NO responsibility for the past 8 years. We have avoided popular culture and groupthink by creating a sustainable lifestyle at great personal expense.

"Being an adult means accepting the responsibility to do what's right, even when there is no inspiration. Even when no one's watching. Even when you get into trouble doing it."

Perhaps, someday, most American parents and our schools will foster this acceptance of responsibility in our children.

Until then, it's up to us to be the adults.

All Americans share responsibility for what America does. We can't disclaim that responsibility by claiming I didn't want to. Good or bad we are responsible. Thats what makes a country. And it does seperate the adults from the children.

And Americans so far have always do the right thing in the end. Not soon enough sometimes, but in the end, the right thing.

"From what we're hearing, Obama is listening to good people and making good moves."

So far....a long way to go yet.

I think you should lay off the kids, Joyce. If you want to blame someone, blame the sorry party that chose the sorry candidate that was on the ballot: John Kerry. I doubt very seriously that anything would have been that much different with Kerry when it came to the body counts.

Your line "Obama is listening to good people" bothers me a bit. Madeleine Albright doesn't come to mind as "good people" --she comes only to mind as an aloof, elitist warmonger. Ask any Iraqi mother who lost a child to starvation or lack of medical care, during the Clinton/Gore administration. Its very bothersome to see her evil head bobbing around in Obama's Pool so soon.

Pressuring the dems to come up with a decent candidate this time, hopefully was worth keeping Bush in office for the past four years. (And blaming the "kids" is a cheap shot.)

Obama's first pick was a Zionist fundamentalist... Hello!! We are going to get four more years of a different kind of government expansion doing Israels bidding. Albright is just another NeoLib Zionist.

Disgusting...

LeeAnnG

I agree with the previous posters who object to being lumped together and blamed for the past 8 years. We are most certainly not all to blame! Many of us protested, voted, wrote letters to our legislators, marched on Washington and other cities, and had extended conversations to convince unenlightened friends or family about the situation. One of my friends was an environmental activist who even ran for an elected office on the Green ticket. So how is SHE responsible for Bush or Cheney or the war or the environmental collapse?

Blanket statements that denounce all Americans are insulting to those of us who have worked and objected and stood up for what we think is right. Why not blame the entire world for their lack of courage in standing up to the US? The working people in France, for example, might have gotten together and staged a huge trip to America to demonstrate their opinions.

It's absurd to implicate everyone in a country for the sins of the powerful and wealthy - especially when they lie, manipulate, and control most of what the populace hears. And it's especially annoying right after We the People finally managed to acquire a voice and participate in an historic election!

Thanks alot, Joyce, for planting the image of "Bubbling Bob" in my head.
Yes, he can join the other images that are already there, the dead children in Iraq, Gaza, Africa and dozens of other countries. The prisoners of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. The horrific images just never stop.
9/11, anyone? Can you even count how many times you've seen those towers burning, and bodies falling?).
These nightmare images have been burned into our retinas from sheer repetition. Even if you try to avoid them, you can't. The images get slipped in when you least expect it (a movie, a magazine article, TV "news").
It's exactly this type of psy-ops that makes me so scared of Bush, Co.
I believe that they've been successful in creating a kind of PTSD in the American population, making it easier to keep us quiescent and fearful.
We don't go to demonstrations in huge numbers anymore? Who's to say whether it's because we don't think they're particularly effective, or if it's because we are leery of being peppersprayed, tasered, or worse? Arrests are common, and, all too often, jail, for merely speaking our minds or being present.
In a country with the most spohisticated propaganda mechanisms on the planet, we have a huge challenge ahead of us to change things.
My favorite image from Joyce's article?
George W. Bush- his hands dripping with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people.

I don't agree with those who say we all have responsibility. First of all we were lied to (not mistakenly informed, but flat out lied to) by the Bush adminstration.

Secondly many of those who clearly dissented with Bush from the gitgo had their votes nullified by either fraudulent disqualification on the part ogf partisan Swedcretasrys of State in florida, Ohio, New Mexico, and other places.

Also they were betrayed by two wuss-bag candidates named Gore and Kerry who rolled over and played dead in the light of such fraudulent dealings.

Finally, after finally giving the Democrats a decisive majority ion the House and a just barely working majority in the Senate, their leadership rolled over an played dead by giving Bush all the money he wanted for his wars, FISA legislation, no fundinhg for poor chlkdren's healthcare, etc.

The past two years especdially ought to have been a wake-up cal for both Demoicrats and Republicans--either reform yourselves or deservedly die. May the DEems get their fillibuster proof majority in the Senate so that when 2010 elections roll around they have no excuses-they wioll have either put up or be worthy of being cast out.

Stop the wars.

Close the gulag of Bhagram, Diego Garcia, Gitmo, and everywhere else in the world (includsijnhg prison ships that sail to nowhere).

Revoke the USA Patriot Act, Military Comissions Act, FISA Reforms, and Gramm-Blilly-Leach nad reinstate the Glass-Steagall act.

Poet

We don't have to do "what ifs", Joyce Marcel. Is that "psychodrama"? What is psychodrama? I'm just a bit older than the baby boomers.

Excellent. Thanks.

This seems to be a good place to say the following, from a friend who voted for Obama. I voted Green. Apparently there's a lot of post-election animosity between these two camps. I'm too far in the boondocks to notice this... but.... well, this is what I wrote to me friend.

"I am getting all these emails that assume that I am not happy about Obama winning or appreciative of 'the moment'..... but I am. Some of these notes have the tone of a condolence card. Weird.

"My vote was more a vote for something beyond this two party fiasco and the amount of money that gets spent on it. I was also pretty assured that Michigan electoral votes would go to Obama... although I am not sure I would have changed my mind if it were otherwise.

"I have never felt animosity toward progressives who voted for Obama... I expected it and understood it. But, there was a lot more animosity toward my choice than I felt toward theirs (you should see the email L. sent me... I had to douse it with water it was so hot). I am not afraid of being out of step with the majority, but I am also afraid that many people will be hurt and disappointed when the new president starts to make decisions that aren't what they expected.... maybe he won't... the prediction that he will close Guantanamo came over me like a wash of cool air on a July afternoon... so we'll see... of course we'll work together... in the way that progressives have always worked together... snarling and snubbing and in- and out- fighting... and sometimes getting something done in spite of themselves. I do hope that all this reverie about Obama turns into realistic assessment and comment though... it's already starting to sound like propaganda and he hasn't even taken office yet..... besides... Bush can still create a lot of havoc and do alot of damage. I expect a plunder as he and his cohorts leave town."

"Except that it's really not, is it? Even by wishing and hoping and celebrating, we can't sweep these last eight years under the rug."

We should never sweep this under the rug. We need to understand not so much what has happened (we know in our gut what has happened), but how. How did we allow this to happen? Well, how did ordinary Germans allow the Third Reich to happen?

The Democrats are what they are. They are appeasers, for the most part. But that is the nature of politics in most places and I'm tired of barking up that tree. Politics is politics and always will be.

"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope

The cranky old lawn lady author is right - love requires taking responsibility even when it is not fun. The baby boom generation is depicted as drugging and drinking and having great sex and music. Actually that is not completely true. A lot of us worked at real jobs and took care of family. A lot of us organized against the Vietnam war and tried to save draftees (and Vietnamese lives), even when we were tired or could have been working on career advancement or jogging or something.

But taking responsibility implies succeeding. If we are not succeeding in something, then we have to try to understand why not and try harder. It is hard to retain that kind of humility when you have been busting your A-- for years to change things and some rich evil dudes keep winning.

But it is like if your child is sick, taking responsibility means you keep trying until you get care. Sometimes no matter what you do, you cannot get it. But you don't sit back and say that the bacteria are responsible for the illness, not me. People keep dying even though we protest and organize. They just keep dying. So we cannot be satisfied.

But honestly, in many ways we have it easy here compared with people in other countries, say Congo or Uzbekistan. In some countries you would be shot immediately or boiled alive for protesting. In some countries you will be blockaded and systematically starved if you are not in the ruling group. Our problems are largely psychological and organizational. Here you can be ignored or discouraged or maligned, or distracted, but only rarely arrested or shot for political dissent.

This coming generation will be forced by circumstances to take responsibility for the environment, the economy, for their personal survival. It will not be easy for them, so I don't begrudge them a few moments of joy. It won't last long.

Joe

The only reason we're in this war now an occupation in Iraq is OIL. And with the too low to be true prices, traffic out here in DC is getting nastier. It now takes me 2 hours to travel 20 miles to work. And everybody drives out to lunch and I'm so lonely during lunch but I still bring my own lunch. Bush knew that America was a nation of guzzlers and spendthrifts. As my good ole professor from Texas would say "He ain't dumb man !" If it weren't for America's greed for oil and products and food made from/with oil, we wouldn't be fighting wars for oil.

Accolades to Joyce.

However, as long as the two party system is anchored in the United State of Arrogance, supported by a military-industrial elite, democracy will remain as a window dressing for the oligarchy established in the decades following the Civil War...

_____________
There's a glory in the morning because the earth turns 'round and a promise in the evening when the sun goes down

Nanoo

Moveon.org did it alright, except they are Not a true anti-war, occupation group. Damn, I was disappointed last March 19th when the annual gathering of my local peace group had invited them. Still early primary season and already they were pushing Obama. Kucinich was overlooked. Amazing too, how every year the honoring of the military service people fallen, pictures and candles and balloons. I was the only one saying hey look, let's not forget or overlook the Iraqi people. Frankly, it's the Iraqi people whose lives have been lost or destroyed that motivated me to protest, and my single sign reflected that. The service people who have been caught up in this has been unforunate for everyone.

Kerry didn't cut it and from what Obama says he won't either. Guess that's why he needs to be pushed, begged and pleaded with. I didn't vote for either of these two. I am not responsible for the last 8 years. I've done my part in many ways.