This is what I said today on Radio 4 at 0543:
Good Morning
It is a year today since Barak Obama became President of the United States of America. When power changed hands peacefully in America a year ago, the world had its first Black leader of a super-power. It was a moment of US tradition and yet also a time when change seemed utterly tangible.
It is difficult not to call to mind the vast crowds, maybe one and a half million people who braved the January cold to welcome their new president and to celebrate amidst America’s own red, white and blue banners and rosettes. It was one of the world’s biggest meetings of people that has ever been held and the eyes of the globe were focussed in one place at one time.
Those large crowds carried more than just the hopes of the American people. It was a moment when many around the world stopped to hope for a better world. Peace and prosperity. Promises kept and integrity for all in public life.
A year later, there has been the Nobel Prize for President Obama and no doubt, the daily realisation that you can’t govern a country on hope alone. You need careful, thoughtful decision making every day.
Its worth pausing to remember decision makers today. All those who have to make choices which will affect the life of others. Those who have been elected, those who hold office and those who hope that the people will trust them in the future. Alongside them, we remember those who campaign, those who seek to bring about change, those who dream new dreams and those who are inspired to think through things in new ways that have never been tried before.
God of all our hopes, help us build into today, time to plan for a better tomorrow. And let all the people say: Amen.
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