Thousands are expecting the world to end three years from now, perhaps an education won't be as useful as we think, stop studying.
If you've ever seen The Omen, you know that the storms brewing in the sea of politics can produce more chaos and misery than climate change, the AIDS epidemic, the Apocalypse, and all of the other end of the world scenarios being predicted for 2012.
Barack Obama will be inaugurated as president of the United States on Tuesday. From the moment he takes the stage, the world will begin watching and waiting. Waiting to see if the first black American president in history will live up to his promises; watching Obama's response to the economic crisis, and hoping change will come.
Obama doesn't mean the end of the world. Perhaps he's merely a pawn to keep the Apocalpse at bay for another three years.
In the midst of both a New York State budget crisis and a national recession, Congress recently gave itself a raise. A bailout package given to A.I.G. had pork barrel spending tied onto it in the form of billions of dollars. New York residents are now going to be "fat taxed" on everything from non-diet sodas to non-nutritional drinks.
People can only take so much.
The economic events of 2008 could mean the uprising of tomorrow.
The only reason New Yorkers aren't dumping Pepsi into Lake Erie, Boston Tea Party-style, is because they can't get organized. Should enough people lose their jobs, continue to struggle and remain unable to afford health care, the Americans could be looking at a whole new system of government.
A revolution.
Government upheaval.
Mutiny.
In the minds of many, Congress needs to go. Career politicians whose idea of representing their constituency is to miss votes, spend to the point of deficit and let ideology prevent progress will be the first ones ousted.
Should Obama fail to take charge and turn around the situation at hand, the world could be watching America trying to rebuild its government from ruins by 2012, picking up the pieces that party loyalty and fiscal irresponsibility have left behind.
But many people know that Starting Over, Yet Again is not the book they want American leadership to be adding to their Barnes & Nobles wish list.
I hope that Tuesday will be a new start for the U.S. If Obama can put a stop to the negligent and idiotic ways in which politicians in other branches of government conduct themselves and help the suffering American people bounce back from the foolishness and follies of yesteryear, he will have truly lived up to his word.
If he can find a happy medium behind bashing skulls and another terrorist attack, he will achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.
And if he can ensure that the growing number of Americans who struggle for food, shelter or medical care don't have to fight to survive, he'll have prevented the ultimate Apocalypse: the organization and uprising of the people.
Obama wasn't and still isn't my choice for president/savior, but come Tuesday, he's it for the next four years. But he has one of the best and biggest opportunities in history: the chance to change the American system for the better without depleting it of American tradition. Fix things, or let the nation go down in flames.
2012, here we come.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
