“Ask not not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” proclaimed JFK at his inauguration.  I’ll lay odds that a similar message of service is spoken by Obama as he is sworn in.

As I listened to This American Life yesterday,  I realized how many hopes piled high on President Obama’s shoulders.  He’s going to collapse beneath the weight of unreasonable expectations.

Then I heard that he was joining with others to call for Martin Luther King, Jr’s Day to be a day of service.  In fact, he plans on calling on everybody to volunteer and serve more over the coming years.

Naive, though I may be, I think he’s not going to be able to help people without some assistance.   I’m not capable of halting wars, bolstering economies, or stopping global disruption but I can do a little extra so, today, my mom, my grandmother and my son cleaned about three quarters of a mile of Salmon Cr. road and we hope to do more over the next coming weeks.  We pulled three bags of trash (the vast majority came from beer bottles and cans!) from that short stretch.

Yes, I know its not much.  But imagine if each of us (approximately 300 million members of United States) donated a mere hour a month more than we usually do to helping each other how much we could accomplish. And, little bit of our road looks pristine and beautiful.  We made it happen.

Obama says, “I’m asking you to believe, not just in my ability to bring about real change…I’m asking you to believe in yours.”

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PS My father took this picture and it is his fault we look this bad. We’re really beautiful people who look our best after scrambling through poison oak and picking up dirty diapers and half full bottles of beer.