President Barak Obama

This is my president. Photo taken by me at one of many citizenship ceremonies I have attended in the past several years.

I have been an unabashed fan of President Obama from the beginning.  I never thought he ought to be a miracle worker.  I never expected him to walk on water.  But in my opinion, he is the best president we have had in a very long time.  I wish he would have kicked ass more.  So I kinda like the way he is coming out of the starting gate in the aftermath of the Republican win in Congress.  I love his proposal about paying for community college.  I love his proposal 
about increasing taxes on the very wealthy.  I love his vision for this country.  It reflects my values and the values of practically everyone I know. 

I believe that much of the opposition to him and, frankly, the extreme rudeness shown to him in SOTU messages of the past and last night, is rooted in racism. Even those on the left who have complained that he hasn't done enough on this, that and the other thing ought to take a good look at whether or not some of their criticism of him may have some roots in unconscious racism: the expectation that black people need to do better than white people in similar positions. It's not that there are no valid criticisms.  Of course there are.  It's just that it is dangerous to dismiss the likelihood that some of the negativity about this man is rooted in our unaddressed history of racism. Racism is this country's cross to bear that we must find a way to address with courage and dignity.  

In short, there is no president in my lifetime that I can identify as much as this president as my president.  History will be kinder to this man than many people have been during his tenure.  I sit here and watch the State of the Union address from last night and watched the address he gave at BSU today. I can only say that his vision ought to be our vision.  When the Republicans come up with a vision that doesn't begin and end with the word "no", maybe they may  may earn the respect that I give wholeheartedly to our current president, Barack Obama.  I say, "Keep it up, President Obama. Keep going after what is right and decent and forward thinking and if the   Congress doesn't want to jump on board, then they should just get out of the way and you keep going!"