Melinda's Blog

I read my friend Melinda's blog tonight and realized just how insightful she is about current events. As I typed that last sentence, I realized how horrible it sounds. It was only recently that we became friends, although we've worked at the same college for a while. We bonded over Facebook and our mutual love of our dogs.

But reading her blog tonight gave me great insight into her thinking. She wrote about the election, Rolling Stone's "greatest (fill in the blank) of all time" lists, the insanity and insensitivity of the common man, and a college catalog that seems to haunt her days and nights.

The election
The excitement surrounding the election has been more than I could stand at times, mostly because I am politically neutral. I can appreciate that this election was historic and in many people's minds, as a country, the United States has made a giant step forward in terms of race relations. However, one of the things that Barack Obama had going for him was that he wasn't George Bush. There were a lot of people who wanted "Anyone But Bush"... That campaign strategy didn't work for John Kerry in 2004. But this time around, people knew that GW was leaving and they just didn't want another version of GW in the white house.

But Melinda makes a good point in her blog. There are people who aren't happy that Obama won. They think the economy is going to get worse. They think that the world is going to end shortly after January 20th. What is worse, they think that Obama's plan to help the middle class will be nothing but a handout to help undeserving people. Wait! Isn't GW doing that now? He's just calling it a bailout for the greedy banks that gave out bad loans to people who couldn't afford them.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate GW. I don't know the man. I think he made bad decisions as president. But what president hasn't? Even FDR who started the WPA and other programs to help stimulate jobs during the Great Depression was criticized for helping out the lower class. And in a way, I get it. Those programs were never meant to last indefinitely. But there are remnants of those programs in existence today.

But I guess what really gets me are the people who think that government programs to help people get back on their feet are wrong and support laziness...that is until the critics need help themselves. I have been seeing reports of middle class folks who are losing their homes and having to go to food pantries to get help to feed their families. When I see these stories, I wonder how these folks felt about government programs before they needed them. Here's another question - Is it wrong to help low income families, but ok to help middle income families? Some people would have you believe that it is.

One thing is for certain, at least in my mind. The scene of American politics is definitely changing. Some people will think that since we have an African-American president, then we, as a country, must not have the race relation issues that we've faced in the past. There are people who will continue to think that a "colored muslim" shouldn't run the country. They won't want to admit that they don't even know who Obama is and what he stands for. They will only see a black man. I've even heard bad jokes about what will be served at the inauguration (fried chicken and other assorted foods associated with African-Americans). It just shows that no matter far we have come, we aren't where we need to be.