Inaugural Day, January 20, 2009

Even the cynics are smiling today.  So take lots of pictures, whether you're on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (as are my wife and kids), or whether you'll be watching history unfold on a television or computer screen at noon EST.  This is Day One of a presidency that succeeds (or fails), based primarily on what each of us is willing to do.  Anticipation has never been so high.  So be prepared to "step up" your own role and responsibility.

As a history professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I'll be with my students at noontime, glued to the inaugural proceedings of our 44th president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.  Over the last few months, I have asked hundreds of Americans whether they thought they'd ever see an African-American or bi-racial or person of color elected president of the United States in their lifetime.  Usually, you find a few people who revise their thinking on subjects of such magnitude.  (For example, my non-scientific polling in the mid-1970s found that George McGovern "beat" Richard Nixon 3:2 in the 1972 election.)  But not this time.

As stunning a development as is the election and inauguration of Barack Obama, even more captivating and compelling for me -- as leader of a 'Civilized Healthcare for All' campaign, historian, and 36-year organizer -- is Obama's repeated challenge to all of us: MAKE ME DO IT.  As a pragmatic politician, Obama is ready to go only so far as we are prepared to push.  So put your shoulder to the wheel, dig in your heels, and PUSH.

Barack Obama said it on election night, and he has said it again and again in both words and actions since that historic day.  That is, his election represents an "opportunity" for us -- you and me -- to fix our national and global problems.  Our power as citizens of the United States is unbounded. There are no limits to what we can achieve by acting in concert, and in the spirit of basic decency, morality, common sense, and community.

To me, Civilized Healthcare for All -- guaranteed, comprehensive, first-rate, cost-saving, job-generating, medically-sound, life-giving, universal healthcare -- is the tipping-point issue of our time.  Win it, and the confidence level of the American people will soar.

We can do anything we set our minds and spirit to accomplishing.  It's starts with rebuilding our society around a fundamental right to healthcare -- a promise Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to our nation in 1944. ("The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health." -- January 11, 1944)

So let's go get it -- together -- in the spirit of this historic moment we thought we'd never see.

Yours in confidence and unity,

Chuck Pennacchio
Executive Director
www.healthcare4allpa.org