political

I'm not really awake yet this morning. I am at work, however, despite it being a holiday. I'm not bitter though because my boss is working a lot harder than me today. He always does. 

Someone asked me the other day, "What's so great about Obama?" I couldn't really answer. I voted for him, and I'm currently reading The Audacity of Hope, slowly but surely. But what's so great about him?

I don't think it's actually just him everyone is so excited about. Sure, he's a big part of it, and it's important that we're now going to have our first non-white president. But it's more that we're not going to have Bush anymore, that we're moving on with our lives and can finally put these horrible past 8 years behind us. Obama is young, like me. I think it's time that the younger generations take charge of our country-- I'm so tired of old, white men telling us what's best for us.

All that said, I can't get excited. I'm worried he'll get assassinated. You think things are bad now-- that would cut this whole country off at the knees and I'm afraid we'd never find our way back up. I'm worried that he can't live up to the high expectations everyone has placed on him. Who could? He will fail at some things, and it will get blown out of proportion. It's absolutely critical that he not Fail like Bush Failed. If he does, it will be another 200 years before we see another non-white president.

Although I'm happy for the fact that he is a minority, I wish he was a woman. There, I said it. I never liked Hilary Clinton all that much. To me, if she had been elected, I feel like our first female president would have only ridden her husband's coattails into office, at least a little bit. But I want a female president, I want to be led by a woman for a change. 

I'm a political person, in the sense that I care deeply about controlling my own body and my own choices, and I care about the direction this country takes in terms of foreign relations and the environment. I used to pay a lot more attention than I do now, but as I've gotten older I've realized that acting close to home creates a lot more results than grand theatrical actions. Like protesting at Supreme Court Justice Scalia's speech on campus with pro-choice signs. Nothing good came of that. The self-defense classes we held though, who knows, maybe we helped someone save themselves. And now, giving time and donations to those who need it most in my area-- the abandoned animals at the shelter-- I know that makes a difference. Both of my pets were abandoned before we took them in, and they bless my life every day. 

In that sense I agree that the personal is political. The smallest choice can have political and social ramifications, like whether to buy or adopt a dog. (Hey, there's a reason Obama is "so great"-- he's adopting from a shelter.) It just gets tiring to think about all those ramifications all the time. I guess you have to pick and choose.