All of human achievement has been gained through progress.
Progress is forward motion towards an obtainable goal. The key word here is forward. Forward is where our country is heading. Forward is where President Barack Obama will take us.
Four years ago, then Sen. Barack Obama came along and inspired a nation that needed inspiring. He coined the now famous phrase "hope and change," and rode his campaign's momentum all the way into the White House, becoming our nation's first African-American president.
Now, four years later, our nation has changed. Some may tell you things have changed for the worse. Some may say our economy isn't getting better. Some may say Obama hasn't delivered on his promises. These people are typically Republicans, and they tend to be an angry little bunch.
What are they angry about? Are they upset with the fact that now, thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by Obama, 45 million more Americans will have access to affordable healthcare? Are the Republicans upset that Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which will help women in the fight for equal pay? Or are they really pissed off at the fact Osama Bin Laden, America's number one enemy, was killed under the direction of President Obama?
I'll give the Republicans the benefit of the doubt and assume that they like progress, too. So many Republicans have done everything in their power to stop this progress since Obama took office in January, 2009. They need to start proving otherwise that they love this country as much as they say they do.
But this isn't about the GOP. This is about our Commander-in-Chief. Things are getting better. We are moving in the right direction. Unemployment has dropped below 8 percent. There has been 24 straight months of positive job growth. That is not a sign of the economy getting worse. It is a sign of the economy moving forward.
Gov. Romney has in a sense lifted Obama's campaign slogan from 2008, by claiming he has "real change." But Romney isn't including the word "hope." This is because he offers none. The change he offers is a change back to the failed economic policies of George W. Bush. He offers a change to the social policies of the 1930s, when women did not have the right to decide what to do with their bodies, whether it be getting a legal abortion or using contraceptives. The change Romney proposes is a change backwards, not forwards.
Backwards doesn't work. Backwards is not progress. Backwards is regression.
The hope and change is still there, America. In fact, it never left. With it we are making progress. Together we can get there. Together we can do it by standing by President Barack Obama. Together we can move America forward.
jhyman@ramapo.edu
