No matter your political persuasion or for whom you voted, as an American you cannot help but be thrilled by what witnessed yesterday, another orderly and peaceful transition of power. I sense a feeling of hope that I have felt only a few times before in my life, and it renews my faith in America.
I was raised mostly in California and New England where the number of African Americans in my community was quite small. Charles Bradley was the only Black member of my high school class and Dave Morris, actually my roommate, was the only black student at my college. I was pitifully ignorant about segregation.
In 1957 I went into the Army when it was fully integrated, at least on base. But if you went off post into the small Southern town nearby, it was a different world. Colored Only signs were on the restrooms and drinking fountains, even in a town that depended heavily on the soldiers for business. That's just the way things were.
I remember that my fellow soldiers didn't let race get in the way of doing our jobs. While I was in after Korea and before Viet Nam, we were all ready to do our duty if called upon. If you look upon American history before then or since, I think that white soldiers died for the rights of black citizens and black soldiers died for white folks back home. In that way the military was ahead of the rest of society.
Now we have a President whose people have overcome obstacles that I would have not thought possible when I was taking basic training 50 years ago. And I am proud of my fellow citizens for making this possible.
President Obama told us of the challenges that await our nation in the coming years and it is about that which I wish to address.
A strange aspect of human nature is that we ask for help only when we are under stress. We cry out, "Oh God, help me!" when we are being battered. But when the sun shines and all is well all too many forget to say, "Thank you, Lord." When times are good we seem to think that our good fortune is due to our own innate "goodness" or to our hard work. We forget then that we worked just as hard when times were tough and we didn't get the rewards that we do when times are rosy.
My stupid mortgage industry is not the only reason for the financial mess that this world is in. I think that most of this would have occurred just with the disastrously poor assessment of risk by financial institutions, tremendous over-leverage, and lack of financial oversight by the hordes of rating agencies, accountants, and regulators. The subprime lenders hastened it and made it worse, but the seeds of the current problem were sown years ago by people in positions of power who thought they were invincible.
OK, so maybe we're now on a faster track to fix some of these issues. I hope that we can start making real headway at foreclosure problem, making sure that anyone who is willing to stay in the home and willing to make payments on a reasonable loan will be given the opportunity to do so. I hope that some of the banks and other financial institutions that are still sick can start doing what they can do: make loans to worthwhile people on economically viable projects.
But what is going to get us out of this mess is the hard work and creativity of millions of Americans. We have just as high a capacity for work as we ever did. We are just as creative as we ever were. Every one of us who has gainful employment has the opportunity to work better, work harder, and work smarter. We can be a little nicer to our co-workers, neighbors, and customers. We can even hold our tongues for a minute when stressed, smile, and let those negative thoughts evaporate.
We also need to get our collective financial houses in order. Too many of us have too much debt outstanding and too little money in savings. Too many of us have spent money foolishly on trinkets that we no longer value and shouldn't have bought in the first place. It's also a great time to sit down with our kids and let them learn from what is happening in the world at large and the resulting impact on the family's budget.
If we are to expand homeownership, we need to do it by teaching the next million new homebuyers that they need to prepare responsibly before someone is going to give them a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
Finally, we all need to make a commitment to lend a helping hand to those who are not as fortunate as we are. Whether it is by work or by writing a check, participate in some kind of charitable endeavor. It will help you realize how blessed you are.
The stakes have never been higher in my lifetime, and if we all do this, the mess we are in right now will end sooner and we will be a better people for it.
God bless America.
Randy Johnson Randy is a Credit.com contributor and seasoned mortgage expert. He writes about home buying, mortgage laws and real estate finance issues. He has financed over $1 billion in properties, is the author of How to Save Thousands of Dollars on your Home Mortgage and he is a feature columnist for Savvy Borrower.
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