Change.gov
I haven’t said much about the inauguration or our new President because really, there isn’t much left to say. I voted for the guy and to a large extent I’m already sick of hearing about him. More specifically, I’m tired of hearing about his race.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the black community, but I think we’re doing them a disservice. We were already naming roads, schools, and bridges after the man, and he hadn’t even taken office yet. There was some hope that his election would be a turning point in our nation’s racist history, but I don’t think it has been. Racism isn’t over when we elect a black President. That comes when we elect a black President and his race isn’t mentioned in every paragraph about him. It’s when we name airports after him not because of his skin color, but because he did a great job of serving our country.
Nonetheless, I have to say, I’m feeling hopeful. I read this very thorough article in The Economist about the Bush Presidency, which details “a presidency knocked sideways by the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001″ and explains how incompetence, nepotism, anti-intellectualism, and misplaced loyalty led to what may be the worst Presidency in the history of our nation. Then a couple hours later, I was reading about Obama’s executive orders banning torture, extending habeas corpus to the detainees in Cuba, and closing secret prisons. Makes you proud to be an American again.
