Well, no, I don't hate you. I'm very, very jealous of you.
2008 was a tight financial year for me. I wasn't able to save enough for a trip to D.C. I suppose I could have sacrificed --lived on ramen noodles and water, done without the new winter coat-- but I've been through enough hard times, and tightening the belt, even to see this historic event, just wasn't what I wanted.
I shouldn't complain. I have things pretty good, especially compared to what several friends and acquaintances are going through. Two have diabetes, two have carpal tunnel, three have back problems, one has Fibromyalgia, one is losing hearing in one ear for unknown reasons, one in D.C. is looking for a job, and one has a sudden disease which requires having shots in her eye. Yes, her eye. (To quote her, "If he [eye specialist] wants to give me another steroid shot in my eye, he's going to have to be very convincing. Or, well, as revealed by this conversation with a coworker: Coworker: "Convincing? What on earth could convince you?" Me: "Um... chloroform?")
But... I'm sulking all the same. *pout pout sulk*
I've said to people, concerning seeing a black man elected President, "I've waited my whole life for this." Actually, this isn't true. I never waited for it, because I never believed it would happen. Back in the day, I knew Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton never had a chance, and thank god for that. I saw the African-American community split along cultural and economic lines, and despaired that they'd ever form a cohesive, universal political power that Americans of other backgrounds would accept and support. It simply didn't enter my mind that a person of color would even be nominated in my lifetime.
What fascinates me is just how huge is the embrace of Obama. He's a Celebrity President-elect. T-shirts, pins, sold from car trunks in mall parking lots and crude sidewalk carts, in barber shops and on front porches. Original songs and videos about him posted on YouTube and playing on iPods.
People from around the world, passing through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, begged me to tell them where they could buy anything having to do with Obama. Evidently it's difficult to nearly impossible to get Obama items abroad. People in other countries who I've spoken with are amazed that we Americans have gone from illiterate Dubyah to orator Obama in a realitively short period. "I think America's finally growing up!" a man from Ireland told me. Stores at the airport could have raked in the bucks selling Obama collectibles. I have no idea why they didn't.
I've collected political memorbilia since I was a kid. (I still want a wind-up Jimmy Carter peanut and a George Washington bobble-head.) But the sheer volume and diversity of Obamabilia is mind-boggling.
Barak Obama is the Action-Figure President. That's a hell of a thing to live up to. I hope people have listened when he's said, "This isn't going to be easy, folks. Be patient." And I hope that if his political opponents throw wrenches in the works, people protest. If people lose faith in Obama, he's got quite a height from which to fall, and the hyenas will be waiting. This is the fate of all demi-gods. Let's remember that the man's human.
Bring me something, anything, from the Inauguration, and I will worship you.
(for Obamabilia, check out
http://www.obamaartreport.com/2008/08/obama-action-figures-and-toys.html)
