Obama's pledge to cure cancer

President Obama has pledged to find a cure for cancer. Just reading these words made my eyes well up with tears. God bless you, Mr. President. And I hope we do find a cure. Soon.

Thumbs Up, Dad

Too tired to really blog tonight, but here are some of my favorite images from today's exciting inauguration:

A New Day

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

(taken from President Barack Obama’s inaugural address January 26, 2009)

Obama = Super Man?

Today I saw a news story about a new store and Web site where “official” inauguration collectibles are being sold. Is there always a store for official inauguration items? Am I the only person who didn’t know this? When we were visiting San Francisco, I saw t-shirts emblazoned with Obama’s face for sale in several different souvenir shops. And San Francisco is all the way across the country from his home state of Illinois and from Washington D.C. I even witnessed one man who had bought an Obama t-shirt with a replica of the TIME magazine cover on it – he walked out of the store, then took the shirt, spread it out wide with his hands in front of him to look at it and just smiled. He stood there for several seconds and I watched, taking it all in. And it made me smile too.

It’s an exciting time for us, likely with lots of change ahead. And we’re ready for it. All this build up, however, makes me wonder if we’re setting up Obama for failure. He has many, many challenges ahead, as all presidents do. Do we see him as sort of a Super Man? What happens if he’s not Super Man? From what I can tell, no president has been able to be completely effective – they face limitations we cannot even imagine.

I’m still reading Obama’s book, “Dreams of My Father.” It’s well written and is giving me some great insight into the personality of our next president – he’s very intelligent, has had some very diverse experiences and family is of utmost importance to him. Just from his writing, I can tell that he looks at things from all sides and makes calculated, educated decisions. And frankly, that’s enough for me. Our new president doesn’t need to Super Man.

Why I live in Austin

It's taken me a few days to blog about it, but I am still over the moon about Obama getting elected president! Woo hoo! I am reading his book, "Dreams of my Father," and have been moved to tears many times already. One part in the book details how his white grandparents, who were from Kansas, once moved to Texas. They were shocked by the level of prejudice they saw and eventually moved to Hawaii. And this was long before their daughter married an African student she met in college, Barack Obama, Sr., and eventually had Barack Jr.

As a native Texan, I've always struggled with the level of ignorance in this state. And the hatred, simply because of the color of someone's skin or their religion. I've never understood it. I'm a white, protestant girl from Texas with Irish, German, French and American Indian roots...and who knows what else! We're all "mutts," essentially. (Obama had a press conference today and when answering a question about the dog he promised his daughters, he called himself a mutt.) It makes me very sad that many Texans -- not all -- still have such hateful beliefs. I'm proud to be a Texan, but not when we exhibit ignorance. Anyway, this map shows why I live in Austin...in case you can't tell, Travis County, where Austin is, is completely blue. :)

By the way, Obama's book is a very compelling read. (I hear they all are.) He's had many life experiences and has a very diverse cultural background -- in my opinion, a good quality for the President of the United States to have. Couldn't be a bad thing to have perspective from various points of view, could it? He looks at every issue from many different angles, a trait that I'm sure wil also come in handy.

Anyway, I'm thrilled and excited to see what comes next. Obama is intelligent, compassionate & charismatic and has already restored a little bit of hope for our Nation. I'm glad that so many people got involved and VOTED in this election. No matter who they voted for, at least they let their voices be heard! Rock on, America! Rock on, President-elect Obama! :)