... and the future looks mighty fine.
Today was The Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama. I feel better already. How about you? I feel good again, but then I start to feel like something bad is going to happen. The legacy of GW Bush, I suppose. I have, perhaps we all have, forgotten to have hope, forgotten that sometimes good things do happen and without a bad thing happening soon after. Forgot how that feels, I have.
Until he has proved to me that I should not have hopes, until he has proved to me that I should not trust him... I will place my hope in my President and the administration he has chosen to surround himself with. Smart people, dedicated, honorable, smart, hard workers, pragmatic, progressive, have I mentioned how smart they all are? They are all uber-smart. Scary that in a way. To have a smart President again. Won't know what to do.
I am curious to see how the comedians handle this transition. I mean, it was soooo easy to make fun of Bush. He made it almost too easy. I think some actually got tired of riffin' on him. After a while it was like making fun of a retarded child... it just isn't funny. Wonder how they will deal with his race. Will the black comics get away with making racial jokes and while comics get shouted down for doing the very same thing. Or will race suddenly become one of those things, one of those stereotypes like being blond and big bosumed, or being Asian and being smart, or being Mexican and having huge families... I'm just wondering. Perhaps those things are also not particularly funny, but they are acceptable to make jokes about. Now... will it be acceptable to make funny about President Obama's hair when it gets humid? As a woman who suffers from the humidity also, I will not advocate poking fun at Michelle or the girls for that reason... is that view sexist? Or racist? or just American?
I am so proud to be American today. I'm so glad that I live in this nation and that I had the chance to vote for the person whom I wanted to lead me, and my country, into the future. I am so happy today I don't even want to bash GW anymore. It's enough for me, today, that he is gone. What happens after today is a whole other subject which I will probably rant and rave about later one. For today... I just want to savor the day. Enjoy not being a subject of King George any longer. I feel, in some ways, that this election was another revolution that "We The People" won again. And it makes me think that if we ever get lax again like we did when we allowed Bush to assume the office and when we turned a blind eye to what he and his cronies were doing to our rights and freedoms and reputation... if we ever get lax like that again... it might take more than a peaceful transfer of power to get this train back on the tracks. This could have so easily turned out so much worse. We could so very easily being living in a different country tonight. We must not ever just assume that "This is America", we get to vote every four years and get a new guy if we don't like the old one. That could so easily change. See how many people believed (and still do) that we have to give the government back our rights so that they can keep us safe. How are those yahoos gonna keep us safe? They are keeping themselves and their cronies safe. Me... I'd much rather not having anyone screening my emails, my phone calls... finding out what kind of books I read, what kind of music I listen to, what kind of food I eat, what kind of clothes I wear. I have some perfectly lovely Indian women's suits that I don't wear around here that much because you never know about the goobers around here. They could easily mistake it for Muslim or Syrian garb cause they just want to cause trouble and they don't want to take the time to even learn enough about the people they supposedly hate, to even pick them out of a crowd. Just take offense at the one person who looks different. Crock of foul smalling crap is what that is. But I also have no desire to have my tires flattened or my self mugged, so I wear them only rarely. Bummer. They are so comfy and cool to look at.
Anyway... I'm so happy today. I hope you are all happy too. I hope the whole entire world is happy today/tonight. I certainly feel more hopeful now than I did this morning when I woke up.I feel like the whole world has changed and I just hope that I can change fast enough to keep up. A change, it's gonna come, now....
See you guys tomorrow. On President Obama's first full day in office. I am so curious to see what he actually does. He's said that he wanted to get to work on day one... let's see what he does, okay. I will sleep with my fingers crossed that he does something great on his first day. Not like, superman great, or whatever, but that he will at least get the wheels visibly rolling on his agenda. And I hope the everyday average citizens like me will stay on the Senate and the House to work with President Obama to get some things done. There are some... some halfwits who will still prefer to play partisan games and be obstructionists... we can't let them get away with it. I have a repugnicant governor and repugnicant reps and sens... I'm gonna stay on them to work with this new President. They didn't see any shame in being "yes" men to Bush and giving him whatever he wanted when they had the majority. Now the don't and the only little bit of power they have is to slow down or even stop the programmes that Obama wants to get thru. We have to help him by burning our reps/sens ears off. Talk, call, email, write and old fashioned letter on paper, put it in one of those funny looking things called an envelope and mail it, by snail mail. Do all those things. Get on the Internet, visit blogs, join in the conversation, express yourself. Surely some of our screams, hollers, cries and obscenities will get thru to them. :)
Anyway, perhaps I can actually sleep tonight. I feel somewhat safer. Don't you.
And the super funny thing about this feeling of safety. It was never the "terrorists" the "enemies that are coming to get me" that ever scared me. What has scared me since Sept. 11 has been my own government. One should not be afraid to speak ones mind, but I found myself feeling concern when I was on the phone and expressed my view of Bush to someone... what if they come take me away to their 'non-existent" prisons/gulags somewhere overseas and my family has no idea where I am or what happened to me. That is what I feared while my government was supposedly keeping me safe. I felt like I needed protection from my government, but there wasn't anyone available who could protect me, not from that.
Thank God it's over. Thank God! I am happy. I hope you're happy too.
14 comments:
Hello there, dear friend.
As I sat on the edge of the bed with Mike, crying at various points of the inauguration, I finally got it. I have great trust for Mr. Obama, which is why he got my vote, but the source of my new found pride comes from the American people themselves.
In this time of tremendous hardship, the rich and poor, educated and uneducated, young and old and black and white, have put aside long time differences and joined together. An undeniable feeling of optimism and sense of strength and empowerment now fills the air. We are embracing change and are willing to do the hard work to make this country a better place.
P.S. Very nice picture, BTW.
I can't write anything better than what Jeannie wrote, and I too like the picture!
I too like the picture. I too am full of hope. I hope they take it easy on Obama at least for the first week.
I am surprised I haven't heard any thing about Wolf Blitzer's comment about rhythm.
Thank you guys. I like the picture too. It wasn't taken for the purpose of this post, but it worked out right anyway. :)
Pam, someone on MSNBC made a comment about that too. But you know what? My sisters have rhythm (not me) but... I've said that about them lots of times. My mom had rhythm too. To say that about them is not racist. Why should it be racist to say it about Obama. It's true. of both of them. Unlike the prvious holder of that office. The comment did not offend me, but like you, I was expecting the uber-pc people to throw a fit.
It didn't offend me either. I took it to mean the former guy had 2 left feet one of which was usually in his mouth. But you know how the press is.
"There are some... some halfwits who will still prefer to play partisan games and be obstructionists..."
... I called it! Didn't I? Didn't I? I was right. Told you so.... stupid, ignorant, no brain, old-habits-die-hard politicians. They just don't get it. That kind of obstructionist, partisan, party first, nation last policy is so YESTERDAY. Get over it and get down to business or get out of the way and let the rest of us get to work!
Very well written as usual.
Was waiting to read what you would write on this.
And you beautiful poster girl!
Let's be optimistic, I think Barack Obama will be much better than the previous president.
GWB was a disaster for the US and the rest of the World.
To be honest, I think the current situation is not easy, but I hope that the new team will be able to solve current economical problems.
I wish the people of the US the best of luck and peace for the whole world.
God bless you.
hiiiiiii me too happy like you now.thanks your mail.u know reading to ur blog posts always see you.take care of yourself...bye see you
nice pict. from you.i m soo happy.you are fine seems very well from pasturkey dear
I love this post. I, too, felt different about our future once he took the oath of office. I think I was holding my breath until he was actually sworn in that something would happen to stop it. I heard a comedian say they would have to joke about Biden now because Biden always put his foot in his mouth. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.
Great pic!
I'm optimistic for the first time in a long time.
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
Wow nice pic! Dang you should send that to the President so he can invite ya to take a picture from the White House :) Seriously.. that's an awesome pic :D
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