NOTICE!!!! ...notice the different shifters?

As you travel through this blog you will see pictures of different "shifters".

Why? Different paradigms require different types of shifting or change to maneuver through them. A BMW will have a different type of gear shift than a Hemi-Dodge Pickup or a Shelby Mustang.

The different shifters are symbolic of the fact that a person must be willing to make different types of "shifts" or "changes" to make daily progress in ones life. One "shift" will not work in our ever changing world. Allow the pictures of the gear shifts to remind you of the need to be open to numerous ways of changing your paradigms that make up who you are as a person.

Monday, January 19, 2009

New Era of Responsibility----not just my idea!


JANUARY 20, 2009, 12:47 A.M. ET


Obama to Call for a New Era of Responsibility


Huge Crowds Gather as First African-American President Takes Office; Aides Expect Steps on Iraq War, Bank Policy This Week




On the eve of his inauguration as the 44th president, Barack Obama visited Monday with children at a Washington school in observance of the National Day of Service Project.
WASHINGTON -- Americans poured into the nation's capital to celebrate the inauguration of their first black president. But with the U.S. in its worst economic crisis since the Depression and at war on two fronts, Barack Obama was expected to call on the country to embrace a new culture of responsibility when he takes office at noon.
The inaugural crowd Tuesday could reach two million people, one of the largest gatherings in Washington's history. Millions more will be watching across the U.S. and around the world, with outdoor video screens planned for public squares.
Mr. Obama will take the oath of office with his hand on the Bible that once belonged to the last president to hail from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. The 44th president will stand opposite the Lincoln Memorial, two miles away, where 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. called upon the nation to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Mr. Obama spent Monday celebrating Dr. King's birthday as a day of service, while street vendors sold memorabilia juxtaposing the images of the two black leaders.
Little official business is expected Tuesday in Washington. The real work of the new president will begin Wednesday, Mr. Obama's first full day in office. Aides said one of the new president's first actions will be summoning his national security team to begin preparing for a 16-month withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, one of the main promises of his two-year-long campaign for the presidency.

News, photos and background on key players and issues in the Obama administration's first 100 days from the WSJ and across the Web.
The Inauguration
The Economy
Advisers
Foreign Affairs
Personal Life
COMPLETE COVERAGE of Inauguration Day
That's just one of the new policies symbolizing the change to come as Washington shifts from eight years of Republican rule under George W. Bush. Within days, Mr. Obama also is expected to issue executive orders to begin closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one of the most controversial symbols of the Bush administration's war on terror; reversing Mr. Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and restoring funding for family-planning programs overseas.
On the economic front, Mr. Obama's administration is likely to soon issue new regulations forcing recipients of Wall Street bailout funds to be more transparent with the money, an aide said. The most-ailing financial institutions won't be forced to lend immediately, but healthier banks will be under pressure to move money from their vaults into the economy. "Transparency is going to make a big difference," the aide said.
The inauguration caps a weekend of events and pageantry, and officials predict as many as two million people will seek a spot on the National Mall. The inauguration will join Washington's biggest events, ranking with Dr. King's 1963 March on Washington, Lyndon Johnson's 1965 inauguration, and protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.
Jumbotron screens were in place along the grassy lawn. Attendees, many of whom arrived by bus from around the country, were advised to dress for temperatures forecast near freezing.
Stuck in Traffic
The National Mall was already crowded Monday afternoon, with buses stuck in traffic and tourists taking photos. Visitors made their way through a maze of crowd-control barriers and past dozens of sellers hawking wrist bands, T-shirts and a Spider-Man comic featuring Mr. Obama on the cover.
"If you are black in America right now, that's all the inspiration you need -- a black president!" said David Reed, 39 years old, an African-American from Lexington, Ky., who was selling the comics.
View Full ImageAssociated Press
Paul Locke of Richmond, Va., was among those selling Obama-themed Merchandise -- he had inauguration pins for $5 -- Monday in Washington.

Britt Loudd of Charlotte, N.C., said that as a precinct organizer she made more than 2,200 calls for the campaign. Her three children, who joined her in Washington, also volunteered. "There was no choice," said Mrs. Loudd. "We had to be here."
Mr. Obama on Monday spoke the message he will deliver at his swearing-in: The time has come for a new culture of public service, as well as a new national unity after years of bitter partisan political division.
Pitching In
"Given the crisis that we're in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can't allow any idle hands," Mr. Obama said, taking a break from painting a dormitory at Sasha Bruce House, a shelter for homeless teens. "Everybody's got to be involved. Everybody's going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready for that."
Mr. Obama will begin his inaugural day with coffee at the White House with Mr. Bush. The swearing-in will be followed by a luncheon at the Capitol and a parade featuring high-school marching bands, drill teams and floats. The evening will conclude with 10 official inaugural balls and countless unofficial parties.
At the swearing-in ceremony, seated behind Mr. Obama, will be his chosen cabinet, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, expected to be confirmed as secretary of state later Tuesday. Also behind him will be his defeated election opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.
Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath of office to Mr. Obama following the swearing in of his vice president, Joe Biden, by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
President Bush will be there, too, departing immediately after the ceremony on a Marine chopper en route to Texas, where he will begin the next chapter of his life as an ex-president.
Before Mr. Obama speaks, the evangelical Rev. Rick Warren will deliver the invocation, a choice that infuriated gay-rights activists but signaled the new president's interest in reaching out to Americans who are not part of his political base.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Obama stressed that a nation that should have been rallied to service after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, instead drifted to complacency and consumerism. One of his first political promises was a $3.5 billion-a-year service plan to expand the AmeriCorps program established by President Bill Clinton by 250,000 slots, double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011, expand the Foreign Service, and create an Energy Corps to conduct renewable-energy and environmental-cleanup projects.
During appearances on Monday, Mr. Obama returned to the themes of unity and self-reliance.
"I am making a commitment to you as the next president, that we are going to make government work," he told volunteers at Coolidge High. "But I can't do it by myself. Michelle can't do it by herself. Government can only do so much....If we're waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets done."—T.W. Farnam contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com and Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com

No comments:

Post a Comment