Part 2 of the inauguration mayhem I experienced.

Random shots of the going ons of inauguration weekend.  I really feel lucky to have been a part of a connected and tight-knit community endeavor with so many backgrounds, beliefs, faces, and cultures. Truly beautiful and just human.

Forget Hillary Clinton! 

I believe these seven unrealized candidates could take this position fourth in line from the presidency and rock it!

1.  Oprah - Who hasn't thought of Oprah joining the Obama administration? She's a great communicator and therapist, and with the money she's rollin' in could single-handedly rebuild Iraq.

2.  Beyonce - A diva with both beauty and brains. I'm sorry but a lady like this can seriously conquer.

3.  Britney Spears - You may laugh now, but who better to pull us out of the gutter by resconstucting the damaged image of America?

4.  Tie between Angelina Jolie and Madonna - Both are world-renowned, invariably civic-minded, and their excellent international connections on almost every continent wouldn't hurt either.

5.  Arnold Shwarzenegger -  I'd only recommend fear as a last resort, but the terminating image he's built around the globe may do wonders for our national security situation. 

6.  Sarah Palin - Awwww, yes, I said it.  Why?  What better way to confuse the terrorists than with a constant stream of jumbling reiterations.   No offense to the governor, though.  She's hot and so could easily distract the bad guys as we slip past and bring democracy.  Plus, she's already friendly with that French dude.

7. And of course, Stephen Colbert - His uncanny ability to work both sides of the ideological spectrum could finally help bring our bipartisan country together.

Or he could just flip off the world leaders who piss him off.

Who'd you pick?

I believe any type of discrimination towards President-Elect Barack Obama at this point is actually discrimination towards his image.  But in the minds of the accusers, they’re one in the same.   Disagreement with his proposals or policies based on sound judgment is one thing; but hatred and anger, the emotions that seem to be running high in the population that voted “against him” (yes, voting against a candidate is entirely possible…look at the Kerry/Bush election) is completely different and just throws us instantly back into the era of crazy McCarthyism. 

Many people just can’t seem to restrain their blatant bigotry any longer, and so begin to throw out baseless claims and fear-mongering stories (my favorite is how he’s a secret Muslim and will inject both Sharia and Marxism into the constitution; wow, now that would be a first.)  This has been happening all along, but now it’s like they unleashed their inner demons, and are setting us up for the apocalypse (amuse yourselves here.)

Anyboo,

I read a great article yesterday interviewing Bill Cosby as he walked up to the voting booth to vote for the first African American president, and it mentioned the possibility of the Cosby Show being one of the factors carving out the path to that historic moment.  Researchers even had a name for it; “the Huxtable effect”, named after the famous family in the show.   “The Huxtable effect” theory speculated that by the Cosby Show establishing the first appealing black family living a normal upper-middle class life, young TV viewers were set up to begin the erosion of remaining stereotypes.  Cosby seemed split on that theory but acknowledged his attempt to help break down racial barriers. 

Either way, I’m just happy to see him enjoy this historic moment, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.’s children, the 106 year-old woman mentioned in Obama’s speech, and every other African-American and minority; or everyone else who was moved to tears by that heart-warming moment when he walked onto the stage with his family.   I believe many people who didn’t support him or vote for him still felt the global sigh of relief in seeing this country move forward.

And I think regardless of who we voted for, we can all agree that THIS is an awesome game!