A National Day of Service

The Presidential Inauguration Committee has announced "the President-elect and Vice President-elect will launch a national organizing effort on the eve of their Inauguration to engage Americans in service."  This national day of service is scheduled for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2009.

Already there are efforts under way to organize events across Utah.  Specific details regarding individual events will be announced later this month.  In the meantime, the Presidential Inauguration Committee is looking for individuals interested in organizing volunteer activities people can participate in on January 17th - 19th. 

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I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am President of the United States.  This will not be a call issued in one speech or program; this will be a cause of my presidency."

Senator Barack Obama, Mt. Vernon, IA            December 5, 2007

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Take this opportunity to sign up to organize an event.  You can also download a guide to organizing a service event to help you get started.  The link to the guide to organizing a service event will also take you to the new Utah Democratic Party web page the state party is just finishing up on.  It will be rolled out officially in early January. 

Change is indeed coming

A couple of weeks ago President-elect Obama's transition office asked Americans to come together in meetings throughout the country to discuss the type of change they wanted to see.  Sixteen of these "Change is Coming" meetings were held throughout Utah according to the Change.gov.  These meetings were organized by individual citizens, not transition team staff.  This makes the number of events yesterday across our state that much more impressive.

I was able to attend portions of two meetings at the Salt Lake City Main Library.  Between them, nearly 50 people showed up to listen or speak their minds in spite of the major snow storm rolling through northern Utah.  People shared personal healthcare stories, expressed their passion for a greener energy infrastructure and called on those in attendance to give a little to local food banks desperate for resources to help the hungry during very hard times. 

While Obama's campaign was built on themes of hope and change, the evidence of change and source of hope for me is the number of people staying involved.  One would have to be very cynical indeed not to be inspired by people showing up on a snowy Saturday morning to share their concerns and commit to building stronger communities and a stronger nation. 

Yesterday also saw President-elect Obama's weekly address to the nation.  The president-elect stated solving the ongoing mortgage crisis will be key to bring our country out of the deepening recession we find ourselves in.  He announced the nomination of current New York City Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development Shaun Donovan for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  The president-elect's weekly address is provided below.

This week in the transition

President-elect Obama rolled out some aspects of his economic recovery plan in today's address to the nation.  Huge (and overdue) investments in infrastructure, schools, and broadband technology.  Also, large investments to improve the energy efficiency of federal buildings throughout the nation. 

This week we learned the full scope of job losses over the past 11 months of the Bush recession.  One in ten home owners are either in forclosure or at least one month behind on their house payments.  Unemployment rose to 6.7%, without including the hundreds of thousands who have given up looking for work or those forced into part-time work.  One economist stated on PBS this week unemployment and under-employment combined is likely between 10 and 12% if all of those that would like full-time work were included in the unemployment figures.

As the transition moves forward we are getting a clear picture of what will almost certainly be a refreshingly transparent and inclusive Obama presidency.  Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Tom Daschle invited Americans to join in the discussion on healthcare reform by hosting or attending a meeting to solicit ideas from family, friends and neighbors. The transition team is requesting people hold/attend meeting in their area between December 15th and December 31st and provide what ideas they come up with to the transition team by the end of the month.  HHS Secretary nominee Daschle will be selecting at least one of these events to attend and participate in the discussion.

Finally, after the lengthy court battle over disclosure of which industries were at the table while Bush's energy policy was being written we finally have a seat at the table ourselves.  The transition team is disclosing all groups that are meeting with them and is posting online documents presented or produced as a result of ongoing discussions with these groups.  They are even asking for your feedback.

After the excessive use of executive privilege and closed door meetings of the past eight years, all Americans should find it refreshing information is being provided to them and their feedback is being asked for, even if they disagree with the policy outcome.