I've spoken to many friends and relatives this past week who, no matter what their political leanings, are newly hopeful about the future, now that we have President-Elect Obama.  Hope is a new commodity, and it's trading high. That's not to say it won't be hard work, though.  

I have a cousin out in California, who has spent most of her life advocating for folks with disabilities/special needs. Her reflections are so eloquently expressed. I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her here:  

"I'm old enough to remember the rough times of the Civil Rights movement very vividly, so like many, I feel the real weight of the arc of history right now. I can literally feel that heavy wheel slowly turning. I talked to my aunt on Sunday, who's 90 now, and she said that she is glad that she has lived long enough to actually witness this happening to our country . . .

"There are so many additional benefits. Obama is honest, tough, fair and a constitutional scholar. That means his administration will not allow our constitution to be abused, and will not allow our civil  rights to be toyed with for political purposes. He is well-educated, well-spoken, and communicates beautifully. He respects and advocates for education, and will not talk down to our people. That will end the use of the anti-intellectualism card that the Republicans have played consistently since Nixon picked Agnew as his vice-presidential running mate! Boy, have I been waiting that to change to happen! Obama is already serving as a  role model for kids and teenagers to do well in school and act with integrity (not to mention also changing the way they dress, as I have heard) . . ."

One small side note about the "changing the way teens dress." Interestingly, Obama instructed today's young men to "pull up their pants" in a recent interview.  

  "Here is my attitude," said Obama. "I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. We should be focused on creating jobs, improving our schools, health care, dealing with the war in Iraq, and anybody, any public official, that is worrying about sagging pants probably needs to spend some time focusing on real problems out there."

"Having said that," he added, "brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother; your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on. There are some issues that we face, that you don't have to pass a law, but that doesn't mean folks can't have some sense and some respect for other people and, you know, some people might not want to see your underwear -- I'm one of them."

I just loved seeing this glimpse of the scolding father in Obama.

But hey, it isn't just the teens. In a sense we all need to learn "some sense and some respect for other people," in Obama's words.

 And we, too, need to pull up our pants and get to work. We need to learn to live within our means, and work hard to do so; learn to be greener consumers; learn to care about the greater good; learn to be open and accepting of each other in all our differences. So let's stop the childish political squabbling and finger-pointing and bullying and doom-saying, and put on our big-boy and big-girl pants.

Most of all, I feel we need to learn that LEARNING -- that education -- is the ticket to success in this world. Twentyfirst-century skills necessitate we teach kids to "learn how to learn." In a world where they'll change jobs dozens of times, they --and we-- need a fire-in-the-belly, a hunger to learn, to change, to grow, be flexible, adapt to an ever-changing world.       

So let's all pull up our pants and get to work!