That is the mantra we have been hearing over the past twenty-four hours since the big news was announced that Democrat, Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America.
It is also a Bruce Springsteen song in which the rock star voices his dissatisfaction with American politics through the old folk ballad, representing many Americans' feelings on the current political position of the US.
Barack Obama seems to symbolise hope for many and the big word associated with Obama's campaign was of course ‘Change’.
Some may wonder why we here in Ireland are so concerned about the American elections, and why so many have opinions on the candidates at all, however, whatever happens in America does affect the rest of the world and this has been clearly seen during the Bush administration.
Obama represents everything that Bush is not and the people of America have spoken out loudly against the current leadership by voting for Obama - a young and inexperienced politician some might say and also the first black American president in our lifetime.
Voters have taken a risk this time round and this also illustrates how disillusioned the nation was with the current regime which appeared to have no regard for how the average American citizen believed that the country should be run.
Politicians often seem to forget that they are there to represent the opinions of the majority of citizens. Sometimes once they get into power, they lose sight of how they got to where they are and they think that now that they have the reins, they have the right to rule the kingdom like a king out of a fairytale. This is of course nonsense.
Hopefully Obama will do what he said he would do. He promises change and he promises hope. People really appear to believe that he can deliver and let's hope he can. It is rare that people deliver on their pre-election promises as they are normally so unattainable that they are impossible to fulfil. Let's hope Barack Obama is a more noble and sincere politician and he attempts to deliver on what he said he would do.
He comes across as a Regan or Kennedy-type president which would be a welcomed as far as many are concerned. Bush seems to represent war and conflict while there was a more humane side to the former two presidents than we see with Bush. Obama represents a softer rule we believe and we can only hope that this tactic will work. It is clear that Americans believe that the iron fist does not work and so once again they are looking for change.
Of course, we could have done the same ourselves across the water. We had the opportunity to change, however, we went for more of the same in choosing our country’s leadership. Were we right or wrong? Is is hard to know. If Fine Gael were leading the country now - there would be cries of ‘ ye have brought the country down’. However, this was obviously going to happen anyway in Ireland. It was simply a matter of time. In any of the history books, it is evident that this is a familiar sequence of events and this has happened in countries the the world over. When things go so well for a country - they have to come down again in order for the cycle to continue. So whether it was a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael-led government (and often I struggle to see what the difference is! ), Ireland’s recession was destined to happen.
And of course what happens in America will always happen in Ireland a little later and the recession in the US has been ongoing for some years now.
We too ‘shall overcome’. The timeframe for when that is going to happen is a different story but it will happen. It may not feel that way now as we hear every day of friends and relatives being let go from work and of companies going into liquidation. Hopefully everyone will get through these hard times without too much difficulty but until it turns around we will hold on to Obama, Bruce and Martin Luther King’s mantra - ‘We Shall Overcome’.
Change has come to America and what had been thought of as ‘an impossible dream’ - that a black man could become president - has also been realised. Things are looking up - times, they are a-changing. Bring them on.
