WhiteHouse.gov

By now, most people have probably seen the new White House website.

There are promising signs that this will be an administration that cares to communicate with the public in a much more open way. Most third party content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, the unreasonable restrictions in the robots.txt file have been eliminated (I’ve seen others credited with finding this first, but it looks to me like it was reported first here.), and the blog looks good so far.

Some have argued that the site doesn’t go far enough, and I’d agree in principle; but I think it is a great step in the right direction. The responsibility for the welfare of our society falls on each of us. We must have a government that wants to keep the us informed as well as hear and understand our needs and opinions.

Check out the new site.

January 26, 2009 | Filed Under Freedom | Comments 

The Time for Change Has Come

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve waited a long time for this day.

There is no need to focus on all the things I didn’t like about our previous president – others have done that well. It’s time to focus on the positive things that can happen now.

I have no illusions that all we be well in America now, nor do I believe President Obama will do things as well as he should. In fact, I fully expect him to make decisions with which I do not agree. Nonetheless, I expect the next four years to bring about significant changes to our way of life in this country.

There are many who wish him harm, pray that he fails, or look to the future with paranoia and fear; but I’d argue that even those who disagree with his policy should hope for the best. Like our President said yesterday and at other times, “there is no such thing as false hope.” We should all hope and pray for our great country and our new leader.

We should also not forget the significance of his election to power as an African American. We can not all be free until we are all free. The fact that these two men can stand on the platform together is a testament to how far we’ve come.

January 20, 2009 | Filed Under Freedom | Comments