Am i the only one...

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I woke up this morning more with a sense of relief than of anticipation.

exactly.

i see the inauguration as a sort of pre-game show... when i am waiting to see the actual game.

I wonder what statement out of his speech will be pulled and quoted and be his defining set of words.

For MLK it was " I have a Dream"

For Obama --- ?

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@DrewDad,

Your not black Wink

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This was just one of many presidential inaugurations I have not watched.
We Americans are pretty good at transferring power smoothly and it shows.
The process worked as intended. We have a new president. All is well.

Politicians love the fact that they can distract the dumbmasses while they
continue taxing and spending - giving little thought to anyone looking to hold any
of them accountable. They love that you are not paying attention to the details.

At the end of the day, nothing has changed... nothing to see here... move along now.

BTW, O boy should publicly thank GW Bush for all of his efforts that resulted in this transition occurring
in an extra smooth fashion. GWB applied lessons learned from the totally fucked up Clinton departure.
I have no doubt that Obama will do the same when he departs office at the end of his term.

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@snood,

snood wrote:

No, shewolf,
It isn't at all suprising that you don't give a f*ck about the inauguration...

It's real clear from what you post what is and isn't important to you, and the first African-American POTUS wasn't going to be one of them.

But in my opinion, that's your loss.

Maybe it's not all that much to be so proud of when you consider fairly recent company - Nixon, Reagan, Bush. Yeah he's A-A, but so what? I'd be pretty surprised if more people today voted against a guy because of his colour rather than his policies. Of course, where I live, African-Americans are not a big factor. But Canada has elected (East) Indian, Chinese, Slavic, you name it MPs who have held ministry portfolios and other major positions at various levels of government. And the A-A people have had several prominent A-As in positions of power, Colin Powell and Condi Rice, just to name two. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to you that America elected an African-American as president. Had they elected Hilary, I would have had the same comment to anyone "proud" of electing a woman.

Haven't we all agreed it's about the substance rather than the colour?

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Well, some can suggest that at the end of the day nothing had changed, but that is simply and objectively incorrect, because much had changed before midnight and much more will change over the next four years.

Quote:

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration

.....The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or to have them face war-crimes charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could re-form and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012004743.html?hpid=topnews

I leave it others to decide whether being ignorant of things is worse than being completely wrong about them.

btw snood a shout out to you! peace.

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At last, we have elected a man who is not only charismatic and emphatetic, but is one of the most intelligent persons ever to hold the office.

I have no doubt that he will set the country on the right track in the first hundred days like FDR did. He knows what to do and he has a Democratic House and Senate to back him up.

If he doesn't, his party will lose seats in the 2010 elections.

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@genoves,

I hope for everyone's sake that he is as he appears and manages to run his administration with the dignity he's shown. I think he was a great choice and kudos to the people who elected him. I think the potential for the next four years is exciting.

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

ok, so why don't we have big parties like this? hamburger and a couple of others talked about this a bit on another thread.

Why the big coronation-like events in the U.S. ... parties with ballgowns and baby tiaras ... I could understand it with Bush 41/43 and the big Texas-hair ladies ... but I sure didn't understand it with Clinton and errr it's the 21st century ... why is this still happening?

We were talking abut this at lunch!!!

Dunno...

But...I kind of think the USA got rid of the monarchy but still lusted after the tinsel and stuff....

And, the US just seems to have a culture re country/flag etc that seems just over the top and mawkish and hokey to our countries...like the flag being flown on ordinary homes etc. That is just vomit inducing to most here....

But, who is to say what is right and wrong?

One country's "ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww" is another's "aaaaaaaaah!". And I am sure the response varies across the US.

I have seen none of the inauguration, but I'd burn a sparkler to the change if I had one.

And, as I said above, perhaps changing Government peacefully is worth a big party?

We stable democracies may not value this enough.

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@kuvasz,

kuvasz wrote:

Well, some can suggest that at the end of the day nothing had changed, but that is simply and objectively incorrect, because much had changed before midnight and much more will change over the next four years.

Quote:
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration

.....The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or to have them face war-crimes charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could re-form and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012004743.html?hpid=topnews

Good bloody sign.

Dare one hope for real change?

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@DrewDad,

I don't have contempt for shewolf - I don't know shewolf. I have contempt for self-absorbed ignorance, which I think one would have to possess in great abundance to be a person of color oblivious to this inauguration. And I claim my right to my one opinion, like everyone else.

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@snood,

Quote:

And I claim my right to my one opinion, like everyone else.

Yet you heap contempt on her for not feeling the way you think someone with her skin color should?

Crikey!

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Look. I expect everyone to leap to shewolf's defense - there is never any shortage of that kind of kneejerk instant intimacy on A2K. So be it. I think she is short-sighted and ignorant about matters of race - she thinks I am reactionary and paranoid. We are two adults with a difference of opinion. Can the rest of you stand that, without making one of us the one who is "right", so that you can feel comfortable?

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ok, not jumping to shewolf defense, I'd be saying the same thing if anyone started this thread....

she never said she wasn't happy about the new pres that getting to work this morning.

she said she wasn't excited about the inaugural. I might be wrong but I took it to mean all the hoop-a-la.

I was happy the day he was elected, yesterday was just him showing up for his first day at work.

For the same reason I wouldn't want to go to a live concert and sit in the middle of a crowd, barely able to see the musician, and having to listen to everyone making so much noise you can't hear the music, I wouldn't have wanted to be there.

I saw as much as I wanted in a warm house, with much bettter view of the events.

Is Obama going to be a better president because of the huge crowds?
Is someone more "married" if they have a huge wedding?

Getting all noisy and everything just isn't some people's style.

1 Reply

@shewolfnm,

Quote:

Your not black

You're black? Shocked

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Listen, he can't **** things up much more. And any time things get this bad, the best thing for it is radical change. He is not like Bush. I don't know if he will fix anything in the next 4 years. But I think that the mere prospect of life changing for millions of people is enough for now.

We will see if he is who he says he is. He seems more Joe Nobody than many of our last presidents. He appears to understand the average American's problems and he appears to want to fix them.

I don't think he's going to wave his Obama wand and all will be healed but any movement in the opposite direction as Bush will be productive and positive.

1 Reply

@snood,

snood wrote:

I don't have contempt for shewolf - I don't know shewolf. I have contempt for self-absorbed ignorance, which I think one would have to possess in great abundance to be a person of color oblivious to this inauguration. And I claim my right to my one opinion, like everyone else.

In that case, I claim my right to feel contempt at your contempt.

People are different. They value different things. Get over yourself, and your idea that people of color all have to be excited about the same things in the same way.

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I'm a little confused by shewolf's nonchalance, but I know her personally pretty well and am aware that politics just isn't her bag (mostly). She always smiles and nods when I rail on about the Texas Legislature, for example.

It's always nice, however, to read snood's take. He and I share a big ol' bag of indignation about everything, and I have found very little with which to disagree, over the many years on these boards.

Obama will probably govern too cautiously and conservatively for my tastes (I'm a bonafide Democratic Socialist, after all) and I don't care for some of his appointments, but he has more than earned my respect and admiration and patience while he sets to work.

(fetching another cuppa java while the conservatives clean their monitors to prepare an apoplectic reply to that last)

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@Bella Dea,

Bella Dea wrote:

Listen, he can't **** things up much more.

Sure he can.

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And that is where you are absolutely wrong Snood.
I said before, I will say again.. I SEE the historical point of this inauguration.

I see it. I feel it. I LOVE IT.

But I was not raised to view people by skin color 24/7. And i was not taught that my race was going to hold me back, or that it was a crutch.

isnt that what people WANT from the end of racism?

To be fair, I have gone through some questions in my head outloud on a2k before.. wondering in all honesty if I was racist. There are some mindsets that I just can not wrap my head around. Behaviors that make me sick and angry. Maybe I was too honest in what I was thinking, but Snood really picked up and stuck with the idea that I was hateful. And if anyone else read some of the things I wrote, they might agree. Hell.. even I agree .

But the fact of the matter is that I am 'ignorant' of race because i was not RAISED to see white/black fountains.
I was not RAISED to see myself as second class citizen and the only experience I have with real racism was in elementary school ... before I could even wrap my mind around it.

Sure, I get tid bits of it NOW.. but it isnt any where near what it was in the 50s/60's and 70's.

I can not carry a burden that is not mine and I refuse to. In my mind DOING that fuels racism.

I acknowledge it as much as one can who has not LIVED it.. but I wont create it, nor will I be angry over it.
It did not happen to me. But that does not make me any less of a human or woman.

1 Reply

I dont know where the idea came from that I am not excited, stunned and just in awe that america nominated , voted and accepted a black person into office..

Im just not jumping through hoops for the inauguration.

Chai said it best.
Its his first day at work.

AS i have said before, his speech will not define how he does his job.
What i want to see is what I expect of ANY president. Im not giving him props, or demanding different things from him because of his skin color only. I expect him to DO HIS JOB.

2 Replies

Am i the only one...

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