A New Era of Responsibility

It would have been easy for Mr. Obama to attribute the economic crisis to the Bush administration, banks and brokers. Of course, there was “a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some,” he noted, but the country must bear a share of responsibility for the “collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. “

“…greatness is never a given. It must be earned.” The Americans of today should therefore, like their settler ancestors, workers, slaves and soldiers, begin working hard.

It was quite surprising to hear the first representative of Generation X to the White House also rely on values as traditional as the sense of responsibility and work. Listening to him, one inevitably was reminded of the famous Kennedy quote, delivered in the same place 48 years ago to the day, six months before Obama was born: “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You!”

Surprising? Maybe work. Work, determination, patriotism, the sense of duty: these are the best qualities of this people, these that have made the United States of America the economic, cultural and military power it still is, despite the gravity of today’s crisis.

Barack Obama has warned the Washington politicians that they would have to change their ways after eight years of focusing on the tactical division. Thus, the successor to George W. Bush proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.” So we would like to believe this! No need to be cynical, however, to maintain some doubts about this; realism, knowledge of history

Certainly, Obama is determined not to substitute his Democratic ideology to Bush’s rightist straitjacket. His presidency will be essentially pragmatic: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works”.

No doubt, Barack Obama’s call to values such as “honesty and hard work, courage and fair play” will pay off. We dream of hearing such a strong message. However, if by some miracle a leader occurred that would invite Canadians to “a new era of responsibility,” would we find in us the moral force to rise to that challenge?