“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility * a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.#”

- President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address

Much can be taken away from President Barack Obama's direct and to the point inaugural address on Tuesday. The biggest question to come out of it did not have to deal with foreign policy or domestic politics, it is whether the call he made for collective sacrifice woven throughout his speech, will not only resonate with the American public, but whether it will really translate into shared sacrifice?

America is a nation of optimists, doers and risk takers. But, as has been seen over the last eight years, unless called on by our leaders, most of us do not step up to the plate to do the painful things that can keep the nation on course and progress. The president rightly criticized us all, within the first minutes of his address, for “ ... our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

The result is that in the absence of a call to action, action is unlikely. It has often been pointed out that one of the greatest failures of the Bush administration was that Bush did not ask the nation, at our darkest point, right after the attacks on Sept. 11, to make shared sacrifices. He and the nation asked it of our military and their families, with deployments to Afghanistan and then Iraq, but the idea of sacrifice at home seemed never to have been broached.

Bush seemed to believe that “normalcy” could still be the order of the day. But that wasn't the reality. Instead of asking us to do more, to do what was needed on a number of fronts, including our energy policies and change the way we do the public's business, we were asked for nothing, and we complied.

As John F. Kennedy did 48 years ago this week with his “ask not what your country can do for you” request that ushered in civic action and volunteerism such as the Peace Corps, Obama is trying to make his own clarion call for civic action and participation and self sacrifice.

He said that “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” The question is: will we each of us play our part? It can only be hoped we will.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com