No, I’m not going to write some big post about how awesome I think this country is now that Obama has been elected. There’s a crapload going wrong right now, and I doubt that he can magically fix it all in 4-8 years. Regardless, I still think what went down this past Tuesday is pretty cool.
Let’s face it, I, like many others out there, was never convinced that a black man would ever be elected to the presidency. And even if this is really just a setup for failure, the fact that it happened does make me feel a little bit better about this country. Balk all you like at the silly, white college kids patting themselves on the back for voting for someone different, but don’t try to pretend this wasn’t an historic occasion. Think of it this way: out of the previous 43 presidents more than a third of them (16) could have owned Obama. And another 20 of them probably would have used a separate fountain or bathroom than him at some time. And the last 7 would have crossed the street if they saw him walking towards them…
Alright, I made that last part up. Just checking if you were paying attention.
But seriously, as cynical as I can be, I’m not going to complain if people are inspired by a politican’s talk of hope and change. Because, whether or not those words turn out to be nothing more than hollow catchphrases, they are a far better source of inspiration than the words of fear and hatred that have “guided” us for the past few year.
I am loathe to continue writing politics at this point (today I had the rather fun task of deleting political sites from my feed reader) but it still seems like I should at least comment on an event like this. So that’s what I have to say: cool.
And while I’m sure you’ve all had your fill of Obamamania, there are a few sites I hope no one missed:
- All of the front pages after the election. And I’m serious when I say all of them. I don’t know how Palin has the time to read them all… ZING! (thanks to Electoral-vote.com)
- A beautiful collection of photos from throughout Obama’s campaign. You’re all checking out The Big Picture regularly, right?
- As wonderful as those photos are (almost every shot looks like it’s meant to be a poster or wallpaper), I prefer Callie Shell’s set over at Digital Journalist. A lot more candid photos – the way I like it…
And that’s that. Now I can go back to ignoring the government – just the way I like it…