When I stepped out my polling location yesterday, I found a few tears watering up in my eyes. Finally, the nightmare of the last 8 years of a horribly incompetent Bush administration - to put it politely - would be reaching the official beginning of its end. It's been trying for this conservation biologist to endure such an era of disastrous policy choices -- not to mention the anti-environmental and deregulatory damage to America done by the Republican Congress that lasted until 2006.It caught me a bit by surprise to experience those tears, and fortunately they weren't the last ones I shed on Election Day 2008. President-Elect Obama's victory speech, which sounded to me more like something that would come from the mouth of FDR than JFK (who he is often compared to), was one of the most inspiring moments I have ever experienced -- and as chills reverberated down my spine, more tears of joy filled my eyes. Wow - I was truly blown away.
While the victory certainly was sweet -- and has left me operating a bit on the slow side today -- the reality is that the real work starts now.
With an economic crisis, a climate crisis and a Peak Oil crisis building towards a potential cataclysm, we have a sustainability revolution to execute on, and it won't be easy.
We have an opportunity to work to get initiatives like David Orr and Friends' 'One Hundred Days of Climate Action' incorporated into the solutions announced during President Obama's first 100 days. But we need to start working on that yesterday.
It's an exciting time, and I'm hearing a lot of 'Yes We Can' type talk, which is both inspiring and exciting. Now it's time to put this talk into action.
I can't wait!
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