The Day After...

We are into the 1st full day of our new presidency...a day full of such hope for so many people. Sadly, not for everyone. There are so many facets to what has happened this year, it's impossible to touch on all of them without rambling.

Once of my facebook friends, a girl I went to high school with, made a status update saying how she was laughing that people are assuming this inauguration would be the beginning of the end to racism. In fact, this "unity" has brought out the ugliest in so many people.

I've heard jokes like

"Hey, I hear we're getting free KFC coupons with our tax returns."
"The new presidential car is a PONTIAC. (Poor Old Nigger Thinks Its A Cadillac)"

Ok, I'll be the first one to tell you that I am not innocent from making racial jokes, using racial terms...privately. Growing up in a fairly rural part of Virginia, there's still a heavy cloud of racism here. I've heard from people who've moved here from up north that say "you are still fighting the civil war down here." Another comment I felt was unneccesary...

Speaking of unneccessary...another friend of mine says "I'm mad he didn't mention his mother in his inauguration speech...after all, she's the white one."

I'd be stupid to say that race has nothing to do with this turn in our nation's history. Of course, it is significant that our new President is an ACTUAL African-American (dad from Kenya, mom from the US), and yes, the color of his skin is dark...but I voted the way I did, because I felt that we did not need 4 more years of the same old shit. Another old white guy....who agreed with everything that GWB did....and GWB is someone who has NEVER gotten my vote. Gore got me in 2000, and Kerry in 2004. I've just never agreed with what he stood for. McCain, to me, was another dusty old Republican with the same values and beliefs.

My whole point is...whether you voted one way or the other...the next phase of our nation is here. We, as Americans, need to look past how our President looks, what his name "sounds like," whether or not he's a Muslim, and come together as a nation. Bush sounds like "tush" - the Kennedy's are the only Catholics who were in the White House...change happens. President Obama vowed to protect our Constitution and our values, and I trust that he will do that to the best of his abilities...just like Mr. Bush did to the best of his.