Obama Not the Only One Being Inaugurated

Obama Isn't the Only One Being Inaugurated

by Arianna Huffington

President-Elect Barack Obama American Flag Background CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

Barack Obama is not the only one being inaugurated on January 20. We all are.

And that's not just because Obama has promised to make a call to service "a central cause" of his presidency.

It's because this moment in history demands that we stop waiting on others -- especially others living in Washington, D.C. -- to solve the problems and right the wrongs of our times. Now, more than ever, we must mine the most underutilized resource available to us: ourselves.

The night before Obama is sworn in, the Huffington Post is co-hosting a pre-Inaugural ball at the Newseum in Washington.

Just before midnight, we are going to have a Countdown to a New Era. It's a new era not just because the Bush Years will officially be over, and not just because Barack Obama will be president, but because taking on the challenges America is facing will require a new era of citizen responsibility and engagement.

To illustrate this, we are putting together a video (produced by Philip de Vellis, creator of the Think Different/Hillary 1984 ad, and a media strategist at Murphy Putnam Media) that will symbolize that we are all stakeholders -- all being inaugurated on Jan. 20 -- by having people from across America send us video of themselves taking the presidential oath of office:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The preamble of the Constitution starts with "We the People."

And it has never been clearer than it is now that we can't "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" without the active participation of millions of us. It is not just the Bush Years that should be over on Jan. 20, but also the expectation that a knight in shining armor will ride into town and save us while we cheer from the sidelines. Even if the knight is brilliant, charismatic and inspiring.

It's up to us -- We the People.

And Obama himself has said as much many times throughout the campaign.

He asked Americans "to step into the strong currents of history, and to shape your country's future. Because your own story and the American story are not separate, they are shared. And they will both be enriched if together, we answer a new call to service to meet the challenges of our new century."

We can answer that call to public service in many ways -- by mentoring a child, working in a soup kitchen, picking up trash in your neighborhood park, or by acting as a citizen watchdog, making sure our government is transparent and beholden only to the people (and this includes finding out what happens to our bailout money).

Fifteen years ago, I wrote a book -- "The Fourth Instinct" -- about the instinct that compels us all to go beyond our impulses for survival, sex and power, and drives us to expand the boundaries of our caring beyond our solitary selves to include our families and friends, our communities, our world.

In a study on the roots of altruism, psychologist Dr. Ervin Staub analyzed men and women who had risked their lives during World War II to protect Jews hiding from the Nazis. "Goodness," he wrote, "like evil, often begins in small steps."

Small steps that frequently lead to much larger commitments -- and can have ever-widening positive reverberations through our communities.

We intend to make these small steps -- and larger commitments -- a central focus of the Huffington Post, covering and highlighting what people are doing all across America to meet our country's unmet needs.

A guiding theme of Obama's campaign was the notion that his election was not just about sending him to the White House -- it was about all of us becoming engaged in changing our country. As David Axelrod put it to me during the race, the very tired old Washington model has been: "I'll do these things for you." Obama's model is: "Let's do these things together."

This is what change looks like. We can expect big things from the new administration; but we should expect -- and demand -- even bigger things from ourselves. You don't have to lead vast nations or command huge armies to make a difference. You just have to follow the very American urge to take matters into our own hands.

NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS ...