Impressed, Cautious, maybe a tad optimistic

We possess or are entitled to many treasurers by living in the United States, including the Freedom of Speech (which is why blogging is so prolific), express our opinions and the choice to vote for whom we choose and the freedom to wear our hearts on our sleeves, whether those hearts are filled with new found love, lost love or bursting with patriotism.

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If you read blogs, any kind of blogs, EVERYONE voted for or is in favor of President Obama. As my husband duly noted, it is like when an accident occurs or something exciting is going on. Everyone was either a witness to it, voted for it or, in many cases when things go sour, voted against it.

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I have to be honest and tell anyone who reads my blog that I am not a Barack Obama fan. I think the man is charming and charismatic. I am not sure that he has the experience or expertise to lead our country. However, I am also not a John McCain fan.

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As a matter of fact, I (along with many of our acquaintances, friends and families) were torn during the election process. I mentioned on more than one occasion, that I would have liked to have had the option and I think it should be automatically included on the ballot, that we could vote for "None of the above. Start over."

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I was impressed with President Obama's speeches. I thought his victory speech was much better than his inauguration speech. I find his attentiveness to his wife to be charming, but then Bill Clinton was attentive to Hillary, in public.

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One of my co-workers, who happens to be an American, whose skin happens to be a rather dark brown, mentioned to me after the inauguration that his problem with response everyone is having, especially African-Americans, is that (and I am going to try to quote this as best as possible):

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"The thing to remember is that he is not the Messiah. There are going to be people who are going to be horribly disappointed. It reminds me of the Jews during Jesus time, expecting a King and getting a wonderfully normal human who showed them the way. Unfortunately, they were blinded by what they expected and ended up being disappointed, disenfranchised, angry, bitter and resentful. Obama cannot work miracles given what he has been given. Too many people will expect it and it just cannot happen without their putting forth the effort themselves."

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Incredible. On the other hand, this is part of what the President said. He didn't say "I am going to fix everything for you. He did say that we have to be involved. We have to be responsible. We have to take part and dust ourselves off.

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I do wear my patriotism on my sleeve. I love being American. When my children ask me what nationality I am, I am not Irish-American or French-American or Scottish-American. I am American. We, as a people need to rid ourselves of the hyphens in our lives.

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And then millions of dollars were spent on a gala. Millions and millions of dollars. For the last Bush inauguration his administration was skewered for spending less than half the amount.

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And I was embarrassed that Bush was booed. We used to show people the respect due their office. What a wonderful impression we leave the rest of the world. No wonder they hate us.