I ran across a column I wrote for The Signal (Santa Clarita's newspaper) back in January of 2006.  The column was based on a quote by then-Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan stating: “What the President has made clear is that we abide by our values, we abide by our laws and we abide by our treaty obligations.  He’s made that clear in all that we do.”   

My response was (as you can read in the link above) critical of the ways in which Bush failed to do exactly what McClellan was proclaiming his administration did--abide by our laws and our treaty obligations.

I was particularly struck by the last paragraph of the column.

"At the beginning of this New Year, I find myself asking what will it take to restore America to itself?  The answer is found in Scott McClellan's words.  It will take a President who abides by our values and honors our treaties and is subject to our laws.  If only the answer were also found in Scott McClellan's President."

So here we are, at the beginning of a New Year, 3 years into the future.  And we have, I hope and believe a President who will abide by our values, honor our treaties and consider himself and his administration subject to our laws.

And I find there is more needed to restore America than just that one President (Obama-fan though I may be).  For we are also required to rise in these times of crisis, to abide by our values of caring for the least of these, of honest wages for honest work, our values of equal rights for all God's human beings. 

May we all be equal to the task at hand.

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