guess who else likes to eat at five guys?

P052909PS-0352, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

the ground has shifted

as of noon eastern today, we have a new president. i have so much confidence in president obama. he knows that he's not perfect & that he will make mistakes, but he is smart enough to try things and if it's not working to adjust his path (unlike our previous president). his inauguration speech was full of hope but also reminded americans that we have to do our part too:

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies..."

"...What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship."

one of my favorite parts:

"As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."

*cough*....unlike our previous president. as i'm rereading his speech, i realize that i could keep pulling quotes out until i will have actually posted the entire speech, so i guess i'll stop. you should read/watch it again. it's good.

so, to sum up...i can feel the change. there has been a shift & if we all work together & support our new president, i think our country can be a better place. i have never been prouder to be an american.

here's scarlett's version of obama's hope poster. she's excited too. :)

i am in awe

i have been out of town this week for business travel and then vacation, so i have had the chance to write about the political happenings of the week. i was going to post something the night of the election day, but i fell asleep watching cnn into the wee hours of the morning (yes, i am officially a news junkie). so, wow, i am in awe. despite the fact that i have been incredibly hopeful and the polls assured me i was right to be, i was still surprised when obama won. when things have been going the way they have for the last 8 years, you just get to expect to have the rug ripped out from under you whenever you start to feel like change might be coming. but, this time, change did happen. barack obama is our new president.



this is such an exciting time in our history. i had never been so excited to vote. i could actually feel the change when i voted. it is huge that we have finally elected our first black president, but i also think we have to make sure this doesn't turn into a completely racial thing. obama would have won even if he hadn't been black. he won because of his ideas and the change he represents. i am so proud of my country. we have embraced the future & i truly believe things are going to get better. america will be better.

there are still a couple issues that i do feel the need to address.

#1 - despite having an uncommon name, obama is an american citizen. believe it or not, someone's status message on facebook was calling this into question. this floored me; i thought i was missing out some joke. i wasn't. for the record, obama was born in hawaii which is a us state. in fact, he could not be elected president if he wasn't born in this country.

#2 - proposition 8 passed. other propositions banning same sex marriage were passed in other states this actually makes my heart hurt. these propositions are culminations of hate. HATE. why do people want to deprive people from their right to be happy? gay americans are entitled to equal rights as citizens of this country which means the right to marry whomever they chose. this is a constitutional issue. it IS unconstitutional to not allow gay citizens to get married. there is no question about it. none. your beliefs about whether being gay is a sin or not or if gay people make you uncomfortable is not the issue.

have we forgotten that fifty years ago it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry? this is the same kind of mistreatment. i hear people use the argument that if the majority of people believe in a ban, then that's what we should do, but they seem to have forgotten that it is the government's job to protect the rights of minority. 150 years ago slavery was legal & the majority of people in the country believed it was right. should we have therefore not had the emancipation proclamation? black people were treated like second class citizens and that is how the country is treating gay americans now. if they want to marry, f'in let them! it does not affect anyone else besides the two people entering into the marriage.






#3 - this is related to #2, but if i hear about protecting "traditional marriage" one more time, i'm going to throw up. protecting traditional marriage? really? do heterosexual couples really protect marriage and make it sacred? are they really such good examples? half the heterosexual couples who marry divorce. is that protecting it? if britney spears can get married, then why can't the gay couple who has been committed to one another for 50 years?

#4 - arkansas passed a proposition that denies the right to adopt to unmarried people. this prop was created to target same sex couples who wish to adopt and raise children. i actually heard the argument that gay people shouldn't get married because they shouldn't have children because a child has to have both a mother and a father. so, according to this argument, when a heterosexual couple divorces or a parent dies, we should take the children out of the home because they shouldn't be raised by only a mother or only a father. that is ridiculous. families come in all different sizes and shapes. a family is love, not specific roles for each member.

we have some work to do, but we're on the right track with a new president. we can do it, but we all have to work together. we are the united states of america.