“Everybody look up, and feel the hope that we’ve been waiting for…”

Written on Wednesday, Nov. 5th (early in the morning)–have been in the bed since, so I never published!  Just a few thoughts….

Barack Hussein Obama will be our 44th President.

I am just waking up from a long, emotional night.  I’ve been sick as a dog, but last night, I just wanted to await the results with the supporters and volunteers that I’d worked so hard with on this campaign (albeit, late in the game) from the county headquarters and beyond.  We didn’t carry the county, or the state, but we carried the NATION.  I will admit I’m a little surprised the Democratic vote didn’t take this area, but I think people are genuinely concerned that their jobs will come to an end (several defense contractors in the area).  I hope they have nothing to be concerned about–they have been working for the Department of Offense for several years now, and I think a return to the former should stimulate growth.

I am elated, awed and humbled–all at the same time.  This is what we worked so hard for.  To see the happiness and tears on the faces at Grant Park and in the impromptu celebrations all around the nation, as well as the sheer joy in the room during the Democratic election party I attended last night, made me so hopeful for our future as a nation.  I’ve been aware from my first introduction to Barack Obama, through his books, that he was a man of mixed heritage from the union of a White American and a Black African (not of American slave descent), but the election is so much sweeter for the Civil Rights Movement activists that lived to vote for him, and lived to see his victory. It is only because of their struggle to simply be equal, that any of this was possible.

I do not expect President Obama (oh GOD, it’s nice to finally type that) to change the world in 5 minutes, nor do I expect him to bring about the end of days.  I do expect him to continue to bring this nation together, as evidenced by what we’ve seen in his campaign management and in the unity of his enthusiastic, diverse  supporters…hopeful for a new direction. 

Government may not always be the answer, but we can’t rule it out for the biggest questions.  I don’t feel that this administration will use government for evil, because he has stated over and over again how much he wants America to progress.  Being realistic, I know that I won’t even agree with 100% of his decisions; but the level of concern he has for our well-being means he knows that the decisions he will make will not just affect me, or just Alabama, or just the Southeast, or just the United States. I think the world feels that way too, hence their shared enthusiasm.

We have just opened the floodgate of possibilites, folks.

One gripe: I was disappointed in the choice for his victory music.  Since I heard him speak at the Democratic National Convention, I just imagined “Brand New Day” (Everybody Rejoice) from The Wiz playing as he left the stage. No preference here–either the Broadway musical or the Movie version.  I have been hearing this song bounce around in my head for about 22 months now.  Every time I heard him speak–soaring rhetoric though it might have been–I just heard this song.  I was surprised that it never surfaced as a theme for the campaign.  I think they missed a genuine, heartstring-tugging opportunity.  Look it up, and tell me what you think.

At last, a diversion.

No, not some new incredible fact about either candidate.  This is a game, but a neat one (and no, not PalinAsPresident either).

This game is called Budget Hero, and I’d run across it before, but forgot to post the link.  From the site’s FAQ, I learned that:

Budget Hero seeks to provide a values- and fiscal-based lens for citizens to examine policy debates during this election year. Partisan messages tend to cloud the real issues at play during campaigns, and most candidates are loath to attach detailed financial impacts to solutions which make up their platform. Budget Hero provides an interactive experience involving policy options that have been extensively researched and vetted with non-partisan government and think tank experts to enable players to objectively evaluate candidates. 

What exactly prompted Marketplace (you might recognize the radio program’s name from NPR/American Public Media newscasts) to feel a need to create this little game as a vehicle for information?  Hopefully we’re not so simple nowadays that a game is the only way we’ll understand it all!  As someone who has used and seen such devices being used in the classroom, I can tell you that playing around with Budget Hero is well worth the time for students and the rest of us adults. I learned that I am a fiscal conservative–tell that to my checking account–but still, I learned something!  As a plus, it outlines the rules and gives information for any choices you might make on spending and taxing fairly well.

Excellent game!!

Play it here.

POLL: Is Obama Qualified Even Without Experience?

Truth of the matter is, folks, NOBODY has the experience of being President of the United States unless they HAVE BEEN President of the United States.  But a topic of debate has been Obama’s youth and relative inexperience on the global stage. I just want to know where you stand on the issue (and because I wanted to play with PollDaddy).

uh…wtf?

Ok, so I really never liked Rush Limbaugh in the first place, but this has obviously gone too far.

For the record I am not a terrorist. I have never trained to fly planes into buildings, mail envelopes filled with anthrax, or strap explosives to my body and stalk public places, etc. I am a little hurt that my 4 1/2 year relationship with a–read–Caucasian man has been an elaborate secret, kept only from his bigoted parents, but that does not make me an extremist.

To further clarify my position: I am a college graduate; I have a well-educated and successful family—where many have served in the armed forces; I pay my bills; I do not live in a housing project or receive welfare benefits; I never heard of Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright until this election. I am basically unemployed, but that is a matter of stereotype, since many Americans are going through the same hardships I am. Simply put, I am your average American citizen.

With that said, I hope that most of “Main Street” America does not share Limbaugh’s sentiments, excerpted below. This is extreme, and almost laughable—except that there are small corners of the United States where I’m sure this myth could grab hold.

I think at least some of these "ladies" might be MEN...

Here’s some of what Limbaugh said:

…it seems that a majority of the black population has remained angry, frustrated, and behind. They’ve been left behind. They are acting like they’ve been left behind, and of course we’ve heard that this is because of racism, natural systemic institutional racism in America, that we are unfair, that this country is just horrible and rotten.

…But as you study more and more of this ACORN stuff, you find that it has been part of an entire movement that has been going on for two, maybe three decades, right under our noses.

We thought that it was just liberal welfare policies and all that that kept blacks from progressing while other minorities grew and prospered, but no, it is these wackos from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright to other anti-American Afrocentric black liberation theologists with ACORN, and Barack Obama is smack dab in the middle of it, they have been training young black kids to hate, hate, hate this country, and they trained their parents before that to hate, hate, hate this country. It was a movement.

…It has been a movement, it has been a religion, and Obama and Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers were all up to their big ears in it.

The only thing I agree (marginally) with is that some African-Americans act as though they’ve been left behind. Consider the rationale that crumbling inner-city schools, poor (often self-created to some extent) living conditions, and a cycle of negativity and neglect at home and in society might make people simply give up hope. But Television is widely available, so my solution is for media to show more rocket scientists and diplomats as more glamorous than movie stars and rappers…fat chance.

Read the entire transcript and/or watch the video here. Usually, at the end of any blog entry, I might make an appeal for you to decide. Not this time; all I’m asking is for America to please prove his views wrong.

Another Worrisome McCain Trait

In this campaign season, there has been a general sense of excitement and momentum behind one candidate or the other.  But–and I’m ashamed to admit this–I knew there was something missing from the rhetoric, propaganda and mudslinging, that was just out of my mind’s reach.  Barack Obama made a comment in the Nashville debate that jarred my consciousness.  Until Obama stated his three priorities–Energy, Health Care, and Education (doh!)–I couldn’t figure out that we have dealt with clear, but present dangers, such as the credit crisis, the energy crisis and the fronts in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan/Israel/Palestine…but haven’t really dealt with the most important domestic issue we have, for the sake of our future.  Educating our children should be a matter of national security, and an important topic for any presidential candidates.

I believe in what you’d call almost the stock definition of elitist–The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. I don’t think it’s a crime to believe, especially, that the most intelligent among us deserve the keys to the kingdom. Our children can be highly competitive with the rest of the world, if we’re ready to really invest in their education.  After all, where will the engineers and scientists of the next generation come from, if not from humble beginnings in the American educational system?

This has not been a talking point in much of the large arena from the Democratic or Republican nominee. It has been said that Obama has positive views on funding education, especially Early Childhood and Higher education, but even he has not made more than ten significant statements since the beginning of 2008. McCain, however…

…is rated 45% by the NEA, indicating a mixed record on public education. He did not even make the first public statement (which I know is not necessarily policy) concerning education, until June of this year, although he had some really good ideas…in 1999, before No Child Left Behind (NCLB) complicated things. Even still, he managed to have voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. As posted by The Democratic Strategist concerning his comments about porkbarrel spending and earmarks for $3,000,000 projector in a Chigago planetarium:

 Does anyone else out there find it a little odd that Senator McCain is so obsessed with trashing planetariums? I understand that a hefty portion of his base harbors a medieval suspicion of science education in general. But you would think that a Senator, a former pilot at that, who prides himself in being a strong champion of our national security would at least get it that teaching young people about the cosmos is a good way to get them interested in physics, rocket science and the like.

The final paragraph summed it up nicely:

What is even more worrisome is the subtext behind McCain’s contempt for planetariums. It’s not just a reactionary attitude toward science. He has never placed much value on education in general and sees federal investment in education as a waste. If elected, he and Palin could do serious damage to America’s ability to compete in the years ahead with other nations which are making major investments in upgrading their educational systems. It would be hard to devise a quicker way to turn America into a second-rate power than electing the pair of them. One more reason to write another check for Obama.

What about education? If the common response from the Republican side of the fence is, “Who cares? We can’t focus on that until we finish this war…” we are in more trouble than I originally thought.