Breaths of Fresh Air

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Two recent scary realizations: How much I know about the current economic crisis and its causes compared to others, and, how little I know about the current economic crisis and its causes compared to others. We all should know what happened. To educate myself on the causes I turned to cable TV for a guy who explained how it happened in terms and in a manner I could understand. I’m no dummy but the intricacies of the financial markets are beyond easy grasp. What did AIG have to do with banks’ toxic assets? I finally got it. My teacher? Barack Obama. Speaking at a March 18 town hall meeting in Orange County, California, President Obama laid out in terms I understood how the house of cards was constructed and how it collapsed. The president explained a complex crisis in a matter of several minutes in terms understandable to many (if not most) Americans. You may say that such a short explanation couldn’t possibly be the fully detailed story. It wasn’t intended to be, but the president gave Americans the gist of it so that more of us understand what’s going on and why. What a remarkably refreshing experience.

Wednesday’s town hall meeting was the nightcap to Obama’s promise earlier in the day to be ultimately responsible for the actions of his administration. This Trumanesque “the buck stops here” pronouncement was momentarily stunning. What?! A president willing to take rather than shift responsibility?! What a remarkably refreshing experience.

To young people: Learn from this president. Learn how our government is supposed to work, not how it worked these past 8 years where nobody took responsibility for anything.

To all readers: Watch this president govern. We will all learn.

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