Sunday, December 21, 2008

New Year's Greetings and Hope for World Peace

Happiness and some disappointment too. Of course I'm thrilled with the election of Barack Obama. I have some high expectations. And, I'm thinking, where would be if the other team was getting sworn in on January 20? So that tempers my disappointments, BUT what was the President elect thinking when he selected Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation? This is not a person who speaks for inclusiveness. Warren has been disparaging of other humans who don't accept his way of life and his view of the world. I'm hoping that Obama's notion that the invitation will open a dialogue with this part of the electorate will work. My experience in talking with adamant anti-gay marriage and antiabortion people in this part of the world is that they have been civil but unshaken in the notion that they have the world from God.

I was also hoping for a more imaginative Secretary of Education like Linda Darling Hammond. Obama's selection of Arne Duncan favors a person who has a mixed record on public education reform. Hilda Solis will be a good Secretary of Labor. She is likely to more carefully monitor wage and hour laws and regulations covering Occupational Safety and Health and Mine Safety. Workers have suffered because of the poor record of this administration in enforcing these standards.