The Inauguration- Live from Bangkok

Not long ago it was en vogue to be a cynic. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader liked to confabulate Republican and Democrat into “Republocrat,” signifying that there was no real difference between the two parties.

I must admit that I was a cynic.

I watched Obama’s inauguration from an internet café in Bangkok. I did not have any sound on the computer, yet I watched and for the first time in my life, I was moist-eyed because of a political event.

Now, I will not claim that Democratic President Obama will live up to the high expectations the nation has for him. The truth is, we are in a position more perilous than at any other time in my life. We once took pride in education, science and developing great inventions. Times got good - the best the world has ever seen - and we slacked off a bit. Like amnesiacs on a cruise ship, we gorged at the buffet morning noon and night, forgetting how we had gotten to the enviable holiday and not aware of the cost on our credit card that we would have to pay when we got back to the real world. We are standing at a momentous crossroads. The first path returns us to work after a long economic and social holiday and the other path rides our past achievements until they have finished rusting away.

America became very wealthy and became the envy of the world. Love us or hate us, people from around the world pretty much all agree that they would love to be Americans themselves. Give an American-flag-burning member of Hamas a work visa and I guarantee you he will be on the next flight over and driving a New York taxi within a week.

America is hard to define. One could not reasonably point to anything that makes a person ‘American’ except this: the fundamental desire to make something better. As a result, we have attracted -- and, I hope will continue to attract -- the best from around the world who want to do something.

And ultimately, this is what is great about America. In one election cycle, the voters can refute the greedy cynicism that represented the Bush presidency and return to the greater principles upon which we are ultimately successful. Maybe Obama can’t fix everything wrong with our country. That’s ok. Obama’s election is important, but not as important as what his election represents: America has decided to make things better again.