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.