Barack Obama, The 44th President

A post by "Blake the Megalomaniac" To see more posts click here

The longest, most expensive, and most historic election in the history of America is now complete.  So now what?  I’d imagine that’s what most newly elected officials think subtly to themselves when the fact that they won actually hits them.

Now what?  Now that America has elected her first president of color we can stop referring to him as such.  It’s our duty, our privilege and an honor to remain cognizant of Obama’s lineage and the hue of his skin.  Knowing where we as a country have come from it would be an injustice to sell short those who sacrificed and paved the way for this moment.  Be that as it may, in order to move forward we must not pat ourselves on the back and act complacent as if we did a good deed and now the job is done because that difficult part lays ahead.  We touch on sports a lot on this blog and in sports there’s an old adage when someone makes a big play or scores, "act like you’ve been there before and act like you’ll do it again." We must take heed.  Though we’ve never been here before and we’re taking pride that we’re finally here now–lets indeed act like we have been here before because as I type this, we probably should have already and hopefully we will again whether it’s the first Hispanic, Asian, Arab, or other minority.

Not to continue preaching or acting "holier than thou" but I think it’s also important to keep in mind that just as Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, nor George W. Bush were messiahs, neither is Barack Obama.  Being the president of the most powerful country in the world puts him under an intense microscope at home and abroad — being the first Black president (henceforth referred to as just the President, I need to follow my own advice here) magnifies that scope 100 times.  He’s been tabbed as "the one," "the second-coming", and a demigod but now it’s time to stop the rhetoric, stay medium, and let him work.  I’m no Obama apologist, I’d just like it to be known that on January 20th when Obama is sworn in the economy isn’t going to magically be okay nor are all our troops going to appear home on US soil, safe.  Like anything else, it will be a process.

On a softer more humanistic note, I’d like to repeat something I heard from Jeff Johnson, a BET pronostacator about Obama and this election when he said "…(Obama) expands the definition of being Black in America ."  That statement is telling not only for Blacks but all races because when you break it down it reads, it’s okay to be patriotic, it’s okay to be smart, it’s okay to wear a suite, it’s cool to read, it’s okay to be who you are. While the more affluent sect of American society already knew that now everyone else sees and knows it.

I know, I know, no one can make you feel inferior unless you allow them to but often times in certain realms of society a stigma is attached with any form of achievement that doesn’t derive from sports or the "street" so even though Obama isn’t going to sign off solely on laws that benefit minorities (as a Black man, I wouldn’t want nor do I expect him to) he is shattering stereotypes and making it okay, to say "Yes we can." Now words like Oreo, banana, twinkie, ho-ho and apple won’t be taken as racial slurs but taken for what they are, simply just delicious.

I’d like to say that I’m proud to call myself an American and that would not have changed no matter who’s in office.

u do the dishes…