Today marks the 66th anniversary of the completion of the final plans for codename Operation Overlord, the blueprint behind The Battle of Normandy in 1944. With over three years of planning, the Allies pulled off a top-secret, successful invasion across the English Channel, something that had not been done in the last nine centuries. The tide of war swiftly turned once the victory of D-day secured the establishment of a new major front, and Germany, who was caught off guard and ill equipped, was forced to retreat and loose most of its hold on France.

The tasks that face our new president are daunting and the solutions to our problems are not simple. But the dawn of a new Era of Responsibility means the burden is a collective one, and does not fall on the government alone.

Offering few tangible examples of what his tenure as president will bring, Obama struck a somber tone that starkly contrasted with the optimistic underpinnings of his victory speech we saw 77 days ago. The president strayed from his trademark message of change that steered his trek to the White House, instead treading down a path emphasizing one of the most rudimentary and fundamental American values: truth.

Maybe it was the gooey saliva and snot bubbling from every facial orifice. Maybe it was the way she precariously hung over her tiny mother’s shoulder. Or maybe it was the fact that she had less regard for social boundaries than a Risley resident, and had been staring at me, reaching at my face for the entire subway ride. Whatever the reason, I was not about to lose a staring contest to someone who had nil control over her bowels. This was a pride thing.

My nemesis was dangling by one leg now, her diaper crunching as she inched closer to me, held from a 5-foot death fall by her mother’s haphazard grip on her baby cankle. I wondered if I could — or even would — catch her in time.