Martha's Vineyard, Obama & Possible Dreams

[3BL Media]

It has been three years since we banked on Barack Obama's message of Hope. Since then the economy has continued to decline, unemployment is still high, the markets are in turmoil, and the state of credit and capital remains anemic. Good-b CEO Monika Mitchell reports from the island of Martha's Vineyard on the promise of hope left unfulfilled and what it will take to fix it.

The Economy of Trust

It’s that time of year again when I vacation with the President and his family on Martha’s Vineyard. Well, we are not exactly together. But the 3 miles that separate us make it almost seem as if we were. The Big O, his lovely Michelle and the girls are just down the road apiece in Chilmark. “Up-island” we call it here on the Vineyard.

Each MV August, since Bill and Hillary’s well-publicized vacations in the late 1990s, I have a chance to think about the year that has passed. More than any other time, as the hot days are ending and the turning of the leaves just weeks away, late summer is an opportunity to reassess progress made or lost.
 
The arrival of President Obama reminds me of the tremendous HOPE we held just three years ago. I was in Washington for the inauguration. The streets were filled with cheering joyful crowds who ignored the freezing temps against the vision of a new America—an America where fair play and social justice reins; where small business is on equal footing with Big Business, where working and middle classes have access to the same economic opportunities as the wealthy, and a level playing field established for all citizens that honored our forefathers’ promise of democracy.
 
Yet 30 months later, the American Dream of equal access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness remains unfulfilled. A promise of change that never came—a mantra of “Yes, we can,” that has sadly become “No, we cannot.”
 
2011 has been one of the most challenging years to date in American political and economic history. It has left many of us who believed in the possibility of “change” deeply disappointed—in our leadership and in each other.
 
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