Barack Obama

by Robison Wells

So, I recently went back through this blog and categorized all of my 2008 blog posts. I had a really good reason for doing so (though I can't remember it now), and I discovered something interesting. In the category of Current Events, I only ever talked about two things: holidays--usually how much I dislike them--and the election.

In fact, I talked about the election about eight times this year--one sixth of all my blogs--from the time when I made bumper stickers for all us bloggers to the time that the Heat Miser and the Grinch held a townhall debate to the time that I found slogans for the candidates.

However, one interesting thing to note is that I've never actually come out and said anything about what I really think about the election. (Well, I said something once, but it was intentionally vague about my personal leanings.)

I'm a big fan of politics. I did my undergrad in political science and enjoy nothing more than discussing politics, policy, and philosophy. Unfortunately, I've also learned that politics are divisive, and political discussions can quickly devolve into heated arguments. This is the primary reason that I never talk about politics on this blog.

Well, here it is: I voted for Barack Obama.

It wasn't because I totally agreed with every single one of his policies, but overall I did like them better than I liked the other candidates'. As mentioned, I certainly don't intend to stir up any kind of argument, so I think I'll end my political proclamations there. That's not the point of today's post. (Though, if anyone has any questions about my political opinions, I'm happy to discuss them offline. robisonwells at msn dot com)

Anyway, the point of today's post is this: the inauguration was today, and I was very moved by it. Yes, I think that much of it is overblown, and yes, I know that most of the speakers had speech writers. It wasn't the production that moved me.

Last week, I took my six-year-old daughter Holly out for a Daddy-Daughter Date. She'd gotten a coupon at school for Applebee's--she did well on a spelling test--and earned herself a free kid's meal. While we were there, she talked. She's six, and loves to talk and talk and talk. (In fact, her three-year-old brother's favorite exclamation is "STOP TALKING, HOLLY!")

She started talking about what she would do when she was grown up. Her ideas were mostly about rules she'd abolish, such as "When I'm a mom, I'm going to let my kids eat dessert before dinner." So, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She gave her usual list of answers, which included a mom, a first-grade teacher, and a cheerleader. This time she added that she wants to make signs, which was a new one, and she left off an old favorite: "I want to be the person who puts papers car windows in the parking lot."

As I usually do, I asked her if she wants to play basketball. She's very tall, so I always ask, but she never is very interested.

Then I asked if she wanted to be the president. I wasn't thinking much of it--it's just something that adults tell kids they can be.

Holly replied, laughing: "Dad, girls can't be the president."

Now, I don't really know where she got that idea. It might be because she knows who the president was (Bush) and who the new president is (Obama), and she noticed they're not female. Or it might be because she was connecting national government with church organization, and knew that women couldn't be the church president. I don't know. But the important thing is that, however she deduced that women couldn't be the president, she accepted it with enough conviction that she thought my suggestion was completely absurd.

Now, before you get any ideas, let me reinforce that I didn't vote for Obama because he was black. However, I absolutely love the fact that Holly--and all kids in America--will grow up now knowing that a black man can be president.

Some people say that racism is dead in America. From my own personal experience, I can say that it's not. I remember sitting in a ward council meeting and hearing a bishop refer to Mexican immigrants as "a bunch of wetbacks". Just a month ago, a schoolmate of mine declared publically that a certain minority shouldn't be hired because "they don't like to work". When I was on my mission, living back and forth on and off of the Navajo Reservation, I heard abhorrent things being said--some by the missionaries themselves!--about the Navajo.

But think about Holly, and the millions of other kids growing up now, who will see Barack Obama on the news everyday. Will they grow up with an entirely different perception than I did? Absolutely.

Like I said, race was not the reason I voted for Barack Obama--I did that because of some of his policies. But I don't think the monumental nature of his win can be overstated. No, he's not the Messiah, and he probably won't be as effective in government as many of his supporters hope he will. But I'm glad he's there, and I'm glad that my baby, who was born seventeen days before Obama took office, will never have a conscious memory of a time when such a thing was considered impossible.