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A Change is Gonna Come

Today is January 20th, 2017 and at this minute, the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States of America is happening in Washington D.C. As is often the case with writers, my thoughts about this day are too big to stay inside me, and so I've written them down.

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Exactly eight years ago today, I remember extreme happiness. It was the day I'd get to to witness the inauguration of the first black president of my country. After what we'd been through during the previous eight dark years, I and a lot of people were filled with hope.

I spent most of that day watching the news broadcasts from Washington D.C. showing the inauguration. No one knew it at that time, but a record 1.8 million people showed up by noon that day. That's right, almost two million people, including a neighbor of mine, an eleven year old girl in a wheelchair, came to the Capital in person on a very cold January morning to see the first black president being sworn in.

While I was watching TV that morning, there was a moment when they were going to a commercial break. As the camera panned past the people who were assembling, this song began playing in the background.

That one moment is the one I remember the most from that day. It seemed like Sam Cooke's beautiful and powerful words on A Change is Gonna Come was reaching out from the year of my birth, 1964, to remind me of the very real struggles people had over the decades fighting for their freedom. But it also felt like the change he'd promised was gonna come, had finally arrived because America had elected Barack Obama.

Sadly, life is never that simple, and perhaps we were all naïve. In the eight years since then, it's clear that electing a black president didn't mean our country's long history of racism had turned a corner. Nor did it bring about a complete reversal of policies benefiting the top 1%, and along with it, the massive income inequality in America.

A lot of good things have happened over the last eight years. But at the same time, a large segment of the American population was tossed aside. While they drowned economically, their pain was completely ignored by the government that was supposed to look out for their interests and the journalists who were supposed to keep the government in check. So when a reality TV personality with a populist message showed up, they were more than eager to throw their lot with him. They wanted to blow up the system that had screwed them over, and in some ways, I don't blame them.

Now it's a new inauguration day. I don't think anyone knows what's coming down the road, but the signs so far aren't good. Not for our country, or for the rest of the world. The future seems very dark and uncertain right now. I'm worried about what's going to happen to my country, and I'm worried for a lot of friends who live in other parts of the world.

I listened to A Change is Gonna Come today, and it had a different meaning than it did eight years ago. Even though things look bleak right now, we can't ever stop standing up for the least among us and demanding our society does better. We have to believe that the forces for good, for peace, for compassion will prevail, and our efforts to build a society that truly respects and lifts up everyone will happen.

We are not alone in this, and we have never been alone.

We can do this.

A change is gonna come.