President Barack Obama: Why I’m Optimistic
Looking ahead to the next 40 years, President Obama writes about our nature as Americans to dream big and solve problems
- By Barack Obama
- Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2010, Subscribe
There is, of course, no way of knowing what new challenges and new possibilities will emerge over the next 40 years. There is no way of knowing how life will be different in 2050. But if we do what’s required in our own time, I am confident the future will be brighter for our people, and our country.
Such confidence stems largely from the genius of America. From our earliest days, we have reimagined and remade ourselves again and again. Colonists in the 1750s couldn’t have imagined that 40 years later, they would be living in a nation, independent of empire. Farmers in the first decades of the 19th century couldn’t have imagined that 40 years later, their continent would be crisscrossed by a railroad linking Eastern ports to Western markets. More recently, my parents’ generation couldn’t have imagined, as children, a world transformed by the Internet.
That we have constantly transformed ourselves is a testament to our people—our entrepreneurs and innovators, scientists and engineers, dreamers, tinkerers and makers of things. It is also a testament to our times. For thousands of years, people on every continent lived much the same way their parents and grandparents lived. But over the past few centuries, the pace of change has steadily picked up, and today new technologies and innovations are coming faster than ever, replacing the ones that preceded them.
Much of the innovation reshaping our world comes from the private sector. Rightly so. Our businesses have always been a force for dynamism. But there is also a role for government in helping us adapt to—and shape—the future. From the Erie Canal to space exploration to what became the Internet, we’ve always come together to spur transformation. That is a commitment my administration has upheld. Over the past year, we’ve made the largest investment in basic research funding in history; it’s an investment with the potential to spark new technologies, new treatments and new breakthroughs we can’t foresee.
Beyond our investments in basic research, I believe a greater focus in two areas—education and energy—can help fortify America to meet the tests and seize the opportunities of the century that lies ahead. In the 19th century, we built land-grant institutions to prepare an agricultural nation for an industrializing world. In the 20th century, we sent a generation of veterans to college on the G.I. Bill, laying the groundwork for our great middle class and decades of prosperity. Today, a similar commitment is required, not only to prepare our kids to outcompete workers around the world, but to prepare America to outcompete nations around the world. That is why we’ve taken steps to increase Pell Grants and ensure they keep pace with inflation, making college—and advanced training—more affordable for countless students. That’s why we ended a status quo that handed out billions of dollars to banks to act as unnecessary middlemen in administering student loans, and made the repayment of loans more manageable for students so they don’t graduate with crushing debts. And that’s why we’re undertaking a Race to the Top in America’s schools, challenging states to compete for tax dollars to help them deliver better results in the classroom.
Just as we are rising to meet our education challenge, we must rise to meet our energy challenge. From Franklin’s experiments with lightning to the research labs of today, we’ve always sought out new forms of energy. As I write this, the tragic oil spill along the Gulf Coast is threatening livelihoods and America’s precious natural bounty, making the need for clean energy all the more urgent. Meanwhile, other nations—from China to Germany—are racing to build a clean energy future, recognizing that it holds the key to new jobs and new industries in this young century.
If we hope to continue leading the global economy, America must place first in that race. That’s why we’re making the most significant investment in clean energy in history, offering grants to companies that produce wind turbines and solar panels, helping us double renewable energy production in the coming years. That’s why we’ve helped forge one historic agreement—and are on track to produce a second—to dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks. And that’s why I’ll keep fighting for comprehensive energy and climate legislation—to unleash the potential of clean energy for our economy, our security and our environment.
When I was sworn into office, I had a chance to request objects from some of America’s finest museums to put on display in the White House. One of my requests was for patent models from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Samuel Morse’s 1849 design for a telegraph register; Henry Williams’ 1877 design for a steamboat wheel; and John A. Peer’s 1874 design for a gear-cutting machine.
They rest on the bookshelves in the Oval Office, and I see them every day. For me, they are a reminder of what has always defined America’s people: our spirit; a restless searching for the right solution to any problem; an inclination to dream big dreams, and an insistence on making those dreams come true; an enduring faith, even in the darkest hours, that brighter days lie ahead. That is the genius of America. And that’s why, even though I can’t predict what will happen over the next 40 years, I am—and always will be—full of hope about what the future holds.
Barack Obama is the president of the United States.
Subscribe now for more of Smithsonian's coverage on history, science and nature.
Comments (28)
It was found to hear about the patent models the President wished to have on display in the oval office. All from the 1870's. I find it a very personal insight into the person in the highest office of our land. Thank you, Mr. President. William
Posted by William Welborn on December 17,2010 | 10:29 AM
I just now read this article and congratulations on 40. Love this magazine and thanks for the optimism of Obama. I guess it's hard to get a word from the President that someone won't consider political but once the man is President, he should be able to speak while in office on what he believes. Anyway, I just didn't understand the piece about our kids and our nation "outcompeting" others when we should be considerably concerned with just "keeping up". Take $$ from military spending and give it to the community to invest in betters schools and programs for education!
Posted by Sandy Blanes on November 9,2010 | 08:54 PM
Great stuff, Obama, which is why Americans love you.
Having said that, when are you going to get off the nationalistic shtick that Bush rammed down our throats at the same time that he tried to scare the bejeezus out of us in his efforts to create a dictatorship here? We don't need nationalism - we need to be the leading country that the world needs; a nation that follows (truly and completely) the guidelines our founding fathers laid down and helps the world at large without the strings that inevitably result in manipulation and resentment towards us. Stop invading, attacking and demanding. We've got so much disposable wealth (granted, mostly in the hands of the top 5%, and they're loving it) that we could change the world for the better!
I agree completely with your statement that we need to focus on education and energy. Both are in a sorry state.
Education should be fun, interactive, experiential, directly related to the real world, and not the academic joke it is now. Educators who are aware know that academic education does NOT prepare us for the real world. It's too disconnected and too artificial. Academic education, especially university, quite often is a waste of time. I've known people who were far more skilled than degree holders have to go to university not to improve themselves, but just to get a piece of paper that says they're qualified to do what they're already better at than most people. Case in point: Scott Klement, a superb computer programmer. I've seen many other people go to university never to use their degrees professionally, myself included.
You should probably include in the education front a movement to reduce paper usage. Schools currently use a TON of paper. Why not move to e-readers and let schools recycle paper (a student project!) which can be used in art class?
Careful, Obama - the right wants to make you into a scapegoat just like they did to Carter.
Posted by Glenn McGrew on November 2,2010 | 07:21 AM
Does anyone have this magazine at home by chance? I cited this article for a research report but did not write down the page number, something necessary for in-text citations.
Posted by Molly Hinkel on October 31,2010 | 04:20 PM
I don’t care to see things of a political nature in this magazine .
So far as Obama is concerned, I can not comment honestly without violating your guidelines, so I won’t.
A pretty sad state for our country, in my view.
Posted by Eugene Cole on September 16,2010 | 07:44 PM
Facing something different and hard to understand makes it easier to blame the current president. What's difficult is our current situation and the fact that we can't spend, acquire, and consume as we once have. This isn't a recession so much as a slap from reality that there are more than a few million people on this planet. Solar energy is a clearly superior alternative to agressive acquisition of limited energy sources.
Government was created by people to maximize people's ability to positively influence their world and minimize the damage done by those who would harm. But, government has taken on a form more similar to that of a powerful and mysterious tool that a few people can use in their pursuit of wealth. President Obama, with the adoption of unprecedented transparency of where stimulus dollars are going, is taking steps towards redirecting government towards its intended purpose: maximize the governed people's ability to contribute towards the progression of humankind.
Posted by James on September 1,2010 | 05:25 AM
To be fair, sometimes we need a bit of optimism given the hard times we've been facing as a nation. I will give Obama this much, I was moved by his words when he was elected president and I still find myself moved by his words, however, something about this is rather haunting.
Obama has ideas, some great, some not so great. It's nice to see he is in fact human and he's trying to deal with the cards he's been given in the best way he knows how. What haunts me about these words is the fact that he's proving he's trying to better American education, or at least... higher education. That's great, and I have benefited by at least a couple hundred dollars in grants this semester, but what about younger students that are still in grade and high school? The funding has been cut drastically for that to the point that our children aren't being given the education they need and deserve and nothing is being done about this both on the national level, as well as the state level. It's sickening.
Put this next on your agenda if you seem to be so interested in our nation's education please.
Posted by Camyla on August 11,2010 | 12:46 PM
Decades ago Carl Sagan said that rich countries will have to share their wealth with the poor ones. It happens for a while, and many people in the USA don't like it or don't even understand it.
Don't be sorry, the wealth wasn't acquired in a fair game, so one can say you don't loose, because it wasn't yours at all.
However, I'm optimistic about the USA, it still concentrates a lot of technology and creative power of their citizens. In some new world USA will have its extraordinary and very promising role. I wish you the best.
Posted by Tvrtko Maras on August 11,2010 | 06:31 AM
A few responses to some of the comments:
- a significant amount of innovation is initiated by the government, including the Internet and much medical research (funded by NIH and NSF grants). The private sector isn't great about innovating where the payoff horizon may be long or very uncertain.
- a fundamental problem the US is facing is that the flow of capital is fluid, which means it goes where it can have the highest payoff at the lowest risk, and increasingly that place is outside the US, where there is an emerging educated and productive workforce at much lower cost (hence higher productivity). We need to increase our productivity through a better trained workforce and better infrastructure. No company is going to address this because 1) it's not germane to generating profits, and 2) it generates common good which doesn't directly benefit the company. Only government can address these issues, which is unfortunate because government is quite inefficient (to be fair, so are large corporations)
- I'm not an education policy wonk, but from what I understand, the education initiatives seem to be cited by left and right alike as examples of well-organized and executed government programs.
Posted by Farhad on August 10,2010 | 04:24 PM
Dear President Obama-- thank you for stepping above the day-to-day fray, and thank you for remembering that innovation and growth are the only way "out" of today's troubles, whether they be "crushing debts", pollution or terrible diseases.
Others-- please stop whining unless you have specific, actionable, better solutions. Do you honestly think Bush would have done better? Or how about Reagan? At around this time in his first presidency, do you remember where inflation was?
Posted by Adam Sah on August 10,2010 | 10:07 AM
Congratulations on your 40th Anniversary and the intriguing and engrossing predictions in the Special Issue. I particularly enjoyed the articles on demographics and nanotechnology.
On the other hand, President Obama's article had no predictions, other than he is optimistic, provided his agenda is adopted. Political advocacy of this kind is not appropriate for a science-based publication such as Smithsonian.
Posted by Robert Arias on August 3,2010 | 11:34 AM
It was a great message and all the naysayers are missing the point. They say that too many doritos will cause you to miss the point.
Posted by Jim on July 21,2010 | 05:40 PM
It's heartening to read that our president shares my optimism for America's future, and that he places the same value on invention, ingenuity, research and education as I do.
We hear so much media talk from what I can only see as a cult of failure; the crowd who asks "What has the US Government ever done right?" ( Except win two world wars and put a man on the moon. Build and maintain the largest highway system in the world, maintain the largest and safest air traffic control system on the planet, build and train the most advanced, skilled fighting force in history... etc.) I'm done with the doom and failure crowd. The most important thing this generation can do is invest in America's future.
Posted by Wm. McIntyre on July 15,2010 | 09:58 AM
Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press recently published a two-volume index of the patent models in the collections of the National Museum of American History. Searchable PDFs are downloadable via www.scholarlypress.si.edu.
Posted by Meredith McQuoid on July 12,2010 | 01:21 PM
As a doctoral student studying innovation, I am dismayed at the president's words. Innovation by nature occurs when individuals are free. The bloated and bureaucratic government that has sprung up following FDR's New Deal is not one that will ever truly foster innovation. Mr Obama cites research funding as an example of his administration's surge toward innovative thinking. Programs like Tesla Motors?
And it is evident that this administration is quickly making the free, rational individual a thing of the past. How free can we truly be when we are subject to public policies for which we did not vote and are excessively taxed, keeping less and less of the money we earned as individuals?
Perhaps Mr Obama should reflect on atrocities of the Gulf oil spill when he makes claims regarding the benefits of public and private sector partnership. If the government works so well with the private sector, why were private businesses able to handle the spill ignored? Why has it taken until now for the hole to be plugged? I'll answer for you, Mr President: because the government has no need to act quickly. Unlike private enterprise, the government will never go out of business or be subject to shareholder scrutiny. The government is not interested in free individuals suggesting solutions. In short, the government is incapable of innovation.
www.mises.org
Posted by j a eve krahe on July 12,2010 | 11:44 AM
While I appreciate President Obama’s efforts, as the leader of this nation, to express a hopeful outlook for the future in “Why I’m Optimistic,” (J/A 2010) I felt that some of his remarks were badly off key. Why must we “outcompete nations around the world”? Why must we lead the global economy and place first in the energy race? This winner/loser kind of thinking leads to divisiveness instead of cooperation, waste instead of sustainability. We must find ways for all people to care about each other and help each other survive, and we must work together to preserve our only home, Earth.
I believe President Obama is looking to the future with ideas that belong to the past, like the steamboat wheel and the telegraph cash register. I am not optimistic that these ideas will help us solve the problems that face us.
Posted by Marileta on July 9,2010 | 11:23 AM
Interesting that the president mentions Race to the Top funds, where BILLIONS of dollars are redistributed to favored school districts and states that meet his and Arne Duncan's approval. Interesting because of their shared history in the Chicago Public School system, which has some serious issues with quality and the allocation of tax dollars. Ironic that prior success is not a prerequisite in deciding who gets rewarded. Obama's connection to William Ayers and the Annenburg group which spent multiple millions in Chicago schools without success is apparently not germane to historians.
Posted by Michelle on July 7,2010 | 10:15 AM
"But there is also a role for government in helping us adapt to—and shape—the future. From the Erie Canal to space exploration to what became the Internet..."
Why does Obama claim the government had anything to do with the Erie Canal? The federal government REFUSED to get involved in building the Erie Canal and left it to the State of New York to handle it on their own — and they did.
You'd think a college lecturer and 'Constitutional Scholar' would know that.
Posted by Troika37 on July 7,2010 | 08:14 AM
The real tragedy in my eyes lies not in what the president has not done or has not done, but in the obstructionism that is passing for politics.The willingness to sabotage precious time instead of working together.
The disparity between the rich and poor in this country has never been greater, yet those who throw stones at Obama forget that regulation is necessary to a check and balance system. Witness the banking and oil industries, and the catastrophes that happened as a result of deregulation.GREED. I'm stumped as to how that can be argued or overlooked, but apparently if you are angry or unemployed or zombie enough it can be done.
All this Fox News talk of socialism pales when compared to a party that would ELIMINATE the other.When one side goes so far off center, trouble is close at hand.Why is this so hard for many to see?
Posted by Bill on July 6,2010 | 06:06 PM
Great to hear positive thoughts from the President when we need a mental push over the hill! Glad the on-line version is readable, because my hard copy was very hard to read.
Posted by Howard on July 5,2010 | 10:23 PM
Why is it necessary that the United States continue leading the global economy?
In other words, why should I want the Americans living hundreds of miles away from me in California to be leading the global economy, but not the Canadians living just north of me in Quebec? (Note: I live in New Hampshire)
What's so special about this United States government other than the fact that it has been strong enough to last for over 230 years?
You use a lot of rhetoric to create a feeling of nationalism, mentioning things like the "genius of America." But why should I, as an individual American, want the United States government to remain strong and hold a strong grip on the United States economy so that the United States (including California, but not Quebec) continues to lead the global economy in the future?
I live a lot closer to Quebec than California and yet you express that you want/hope for the United States as a whole to lead the global economy in the future? Why? Why not New England and Quebec?
As an individual I want myself personally (and my family and friends perhaps) to have a good economic future. I shouldn't care about the economic futures of the people living in the geographic area of California more than the geographic area of Quebec just because the government that rules over my life also happens to rule over the lives of the people living in the geographic area of California.
I'd rather change the way my government works so that the money that is forcibly taken away from me through taxation goes towards supporting the people I want it to support (a compromise), or better, so that I get to choose who my money goes to every time it goes, rather than handing a government power to take it forcefully and hand it out to whomever the elected representatives (elected by those in California, not by those in Quebec) choose for it to go to.
Posted by Will on July 4,2010 | 01:31 AM
"Much of the innovation re-shaping our world comes from the private sector"......B. Obama.
This statement to me simply illustrates how out of touch with reality this man really is. ALL of the innovation comes from the private sector. None comes from the Public/Government sector.
It is this elitist attitude that is growing our government -arguably the least effective institution in the US - at the expense of the private. But of course to the liberal democratic elite, they know whats best for us - whether we like it or not.
Posted by Louis Stouch on July 3,2010 | 08:10 PM
Obama articles are not what I need to see in Smithsonian. I read Smithsonian to get away from the day-to-day politics that is splattered all over the newspapers, news magazines, television and radio (and even by entertainers mouths). This is a good reason to let my subscription since it seems a magazine like yours has even come to being swept up by pushing his energy policy agenda. Too bad. I thought Smithsonian was once an unbiased non-political publication.
Posted by Diane K on July 2,2010 | 02:46 PM
In all honesty, I have never in my life felt less optimistic about the future - and in fact, the dismalness is quite overwhelming...
Posted by Judith on July 2,2010 | 02:44 PM
He talks a good talk,but look what he has done now.
Posted by John Moore on July 1,2010 | 10:43 PM
And because of you, President Obama, I too remain optimistic about America's future!
Posted by Mario-NYC on July 1,2010 | 05:56 PM
You speak of keeping Pell grants in line with inflation, but how will our nation as a whole deal with the crushing inflation that is sure to follow the astronomical spending of the last couple years?
Posted by Janine Midgett on July 1,2010 | 03:25 PM
I realize he is the president, but this is the biggest pile of Horse Pucky to appear in the Smithsonian. When I...When I...When I. Personally, I was a recipient of the GI bill and it was a marvelous thing. I served in the Paratroops for two years overseas to earn it. I have worked in a variety of positions and contributed to the national economy since I was twelve years old. In the execution of his office by President Obama, there may not be a viable or recognizable United States in forty years. The presidents speech-writers are excellent. Observing his inadequacies of leadership is distressing.
Posted by Norman Rudi on June 30,2010 | 07:11 PM