"We will see," they say...

It happened again.  Two days since the inauguration and three people have uttered the words "We will see," in regards to Barack Obama.  They appear to speak from a place of doubt and dread, as if the hope for drastic change was too much to ask for.

I feel the same forces.

But let's look at what this Administration has done in these 2.5 days in office, shall we?

• Launched whitehouse.gov on an open community platform with updates, RSS feeds and more.
• Created the space on whitehouse.gov where non-emergency executive orders will be available for five days of public comment before signing
• Called for a suspension to the trials at Guantanamo Bay
• Signed an executive order for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.
• Created an inter-agency task force to identify lawful options for how detainees are handled and treated.
• Halted the use of torture by America and it's agents.

And last, but certainly not least, he wrote a manifesto in memo form for open government that caused me to break into tears.  It is based on three principles:  Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration.

"Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by
appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of
recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the
Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to
take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this
memorandum."

An Open Government Directive.  Within 120 days.  Holy shit.  But it gets better.  He then directly attacks those who have worked to weaken the Freedom of Information Act.

"In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government
should not keep information confidential merely because public
officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and
failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract
fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the
personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those
they are supposed to serve.."

I'm assuming this is legitimate.  It's not yet posted to whitehouse.gov (ironically).  Source: http://www.dowire.org/notes/?p=451

I started this post in answer to this urge to wait and see.  For how long, I have to ask?  Barack has done more in his first few days than I could have ever dreamed possible.  But if we think this is about him, then he will fail. This is about each of us around the world, regardless of our citizenship, and whether we will choose to take action and make our community a better place.

This global crisis affects us all.  And not all of us are so lucky as to have a leader with such moral strength and conviction.

UPDATE:  What am I doing?  I'm going to changecamp.