A Celebration for the People of America

As the media reports pour in on the throngs of people at the Mall  and the great speech delivered by Mr. Obama at his Inauguration, without taking anything away from Mr. Obama — he is a brilliant and astute political leader —  I cannot help but think of Mr. Obama’s inauguration as a victory for the people of America more than for Mr. Obama.

After having elected Mr. Bush twice, the world was beginning to think of America as a religiously, socially and racially conservative, self-centered and arrogant country. A country that when provoked by the evils of terrorism, itself reacted with mindless violence resulting in the killings of countless innocents. A country that had forgotten how to think its way through trouble and only found force as an option. 

A country where consumers indulged in credit-card based debauchery and businesses were so greedy that they outsourced their fellow citizens jobs and systematically dismantled the system with only their pockets in mind. A country where the Judiciary was a rubber stamp for the Executive wing rather than a check on its powers and a Legislative wing that was only interested in pork barrel projects and conniving with lobbyists and businesses on how to stuff their war chests to get re-elected.

Real smoke after the “half-smoke”?

Smoking and Obama — Why didn’t the media focus on it prior to the Election? 

Let me just get this out there — I supported Obama over McCain. And I used to smoke and quit. I mean really quit.  So There.

Now that you know, I hope you will read the remainder of this post with the same sincerity that I am writing with.

With the Inauguration for our President-Elect upon us and much more weighty worries and questions on the media and the public’s mind,  I still can’t get this one question out of my head, “Why didn’t the media focus more on Obama’s smoking habit pre-election?”  

You see, I have had this unsettling feeling inside me about this topic for quite a while and only a few days ago, was I able to articulate why I felt as such:

 “Change We Can Believe In” was his campaign slogan. So why then, Mr. Obama, when you have promised to change the very ground that we walk on, and I hope you succeed, can you not change your smoking habit?