Hoping for change

I listened to President George W. Bush’s final press conference on Monday, and I have to say I felt bad for him. Reporters hit him with questions about his failures: 911, Osama, Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War, the mortgage crisis and the economy. Bush stood his ground. He pointed to the 30,000 saved from New Orleans’ rooftops and the success in rebuilding Iraq and U.S. stimulus packages. But the fact is, we are at war, our economy is hurting, our trade deficit is soaring. In fact, some would argue our country’s in bad shape. Now, it’s president-elect Barack Obama’s turn to get our country on the right track. And I really hope public safety gets some of his attention. Harlin McEwen, chairperson of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, does too and already has sent Obama a letter asking for $15 billion to build-out a nationwide wireless broadband network. However, Obama seems more interested in pushing back the digital TV transition that was put into place to open much of the 700 MHz band for commercial and public-safety wireless networks in support of public-safety communications. So I have to ask: Is this the president who will take this issue seriously, or, to steal from Obama’s campaign mantra, will we just have to keep our fingers cross and hope for change?

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