I have yet to mention the media's Obamagasm on Tuesday here on the blog*
True, it's an excited time for this country and I witnessed many, many people locally who were living it up as if it was the greatest day in world history. I'll admit to having the TV on while working, although I always try to catch portions of the inauguration no matter who won the election. It's always a great day for our country as it reaffirms the ideal that violence need not be associated with the transfer of power.
As for our new President's speech, I wasn't really impressed. He employed the same old political rhetoric that accompanies such a victory, which Jon Stewart pointed out mimicked material that George W. Bush used to drop. I still hold that Obama has yet to rise to the occasion as he did in his speech on race at Philadelphia last year.
These first two paragraphs may come off as sour grapes from me, something rather peculiar as I really didn't have a horse in last year's election [I voted 3rd party, thank you]. I obviously have some differences with our current President on certain political issues which affords me the opportunity to keep a well-balanced perspective on his actions. Whereas some will claim he's the anti-Christ [wrong] still others will anoint him as Messiah [wrong, wrong]. Since I've heard much more of the latter as of late from my vantage point, I thought I'd acknowedge our President's first official lapse of reason in his short term.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the Roe vs Wade ruling which legalized abortion in our country. While I acknowledge that there are many different perspectives held by readers of this blog on the subject, understand that I believe abortion to be wrong, among other reasons, that it is an infringement on the rights of the unborn for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, our new President chose his first days in office to overturn a Bush adminstration policy on American funding for abortions in foreign countries. I fully understand that this pro-choice view is one that Mr Obama held while campaiging, so I can't say that I was surprised by it. What truly shocked me, however, was the apology he offered for such a move.
In order to seize the moment, Obama issued a release highlighting the important need for women to have the right to choose to abort their fetus. The full-statment can be found here, but allow me to quote from the concluding paragraph of his statement:
"On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere."
And right there, friends, is a sad, sad statement.
Read between the lines here and discern what he is really saying: if he wants to ensure "that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons" what are the rights and opportunities to which he's referring? What rights do women gain with the ability to abort that put them on equal footing with their male counterparts?
Rather simply, it's the right to walk away from a sexual experience with absolutely no responsibility. So the goal, if you believe what is written, is to allow women to partake in the abhorant practice of absentee parentism that many males already practice. This is ironic as Mr Obama decried absentee fatherhood as a reason for the deteriorating inner-city.
And this is even more ironic as the overarching theme of the inaugural speech was that we Americans need to reclaim the responsibility for our country that was seemingly abandoned during the Bush administration. You cannot challenge people towards a heightened patriotic responsibility while condoning irresponsibility in their private lives.
I'm not going to sit on the perch for the next eight years and judge every move that our leader makes.* But it is worth noting here at the beginning that, while the euphoria has yet to wear off, this guy is very human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. In short, even though the packaging is different, he's really not that different at all. To quote the Who (and a line I've been singing all week), "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
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*I realize that this term "Obamagasm" [which I haven't heard yet, but I doubt is original with me] that I used might seem to denegrate the idea that we should be proud of our country at this time. I do not think so. I love living in a country where there is now verifiable truth that anyone can be elected to our highest office. But I believe that the mainstream media went above and beyond this truth to virtual deification. One small item proving this is the greatly inflated attendance numbers of the event. Trust me: in eight years when Obama leaves office, the inaugaration of the next President will receive nowhere near the same amount of press as this past week.
**I continue to say eight years with the understanding that, unless the economy stays at the current level for four years [which I cannot envision happening], our current President will be a two-termer.