Saturday, January 23, 2016

Thanks, President Obama

As I sit back in my desk and reflect on the past eight years, it has hit me that about this time next year, we will have another white President of the United States. 

What have the past eight years meant personally to me? More than you think.

Brother Barack (as you’ve seen in so many of my tweets) may not be the greatest President in American history as that honor goes to President Eisenhower with Clinton not too far behind, but he is the most consequential POTUS in recent memory. For one, he is truly the first President to use social media the way we do today. I know President Bush ran the show when Facebook and Twitter were in their infancies, but most of us have become quite adept at employing it for good or harm since 2008.

Come January 20, 2017, we’ll see what a post-Obama nation looks like.

Eight years ago, I showed up at Jacksonville High School wearing the Obama Family t-shirt the day after he defeated Arizona Senator John McCain for President to handshakes, daps, and a few questions. Feel free to ask my friend/mentor Ed when you see him about what those questions may have been because I don’t remember any of them; I was overjoyed that days before my thirtieth birthday, the United States of America selected an African-American as the next leader of the free world. To think that I would have envisioned that day is beyond my wildest dreams – which is to say my parents and grandmothers have lived to see this day as well was amazing.



What do I have President Barack Hussein Obama to thank?

The reality of what happens when dreams come true – and the ability to dream. Now that the kids have seen a black POTUS with a beautiful family, it is no longer a fantasy limited to Hollywood movies and Paris (Ark.) native Rudy Ray Moore’s comedic routines from those Blaxploitation films in the 1970s as he reprised the Dolomite role time and time again. Although Obama didn’t paint the White House black, that ‘cool as the other side of the pillow’ demeanor in the face of raw opposition is what stands out for many of us. I thank him for being levelheaded even as Joe ‘You Lie!’ Wilson interrupted a SOTU and calmly reminding a billionaire candidate who plays on the fears of white people that bluster does not make an effective leader.

What else do I have President Obama to thank him for?

The Patient Provider Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. While it would’ve been more expensive to add my family to the rolls than my company’s health insurance plan, I do appreciate the competition forcing Blue Cross Blue Shield into working a more palatable plan. It seems like my more conservative friends have an issue with free market only when it benefits the masses instead of only a few at the top, so reading their misspelled comments is not only an exercise in laughter but also they fail to understand that when the tide rises, so do all of the boats in the ocean. While the law is imperfect and we have not seen an alternative, future Congresses must find a way to make it work for the majority of people even if it means sacrificing short-term glory.

Yes, there are more things I have to thanks President Obama for, even if I was unable to take advantage of them.

Remember HARP, the homeowners’ credit for purchasing a home in the early part of 2009-10? I do too. Unfortunately, we weren’t in the position to buy our house then but so many people were able to receive the $8,000 tax credit. Cash for Clunkers was another one:  trade your gas guzzler for a more fuel efficient vehicle and you got the credit for the following year’s taxes. It also was a catalyst in turning around the economy and forcing automakers to get their houses in order. You see that the economy is doing better even if we’re not full participants in the consumption and profiteering.  Everybody likes fiscal stimulus, especially when it goes into his or her pockets.

Even in his failures, there are things I do have to thank President Obama for.

As we all can tell, foreign policy has been his biggest weakness. It’s not been the in-your-face style as seen in Russia and Israel (Yes, I went there. Wanna make something of it?); despite that, it has been moderately successful. Fox News viewers will forever hang Benghazi around his shoulders along with Fast and Furious, but they were quick to dismiss the tragedy in Nairobi. It is under his watch that Osama bin Laden was executed as well as al-Qaeda leadership perishing although ISIS is becoming the new threat. In an ever-changing world, the United States no longer has to be the world’s policeman yet American forces are streamlined to lead in a more productive manner.

On the domestic front, the role law enforcement plays has been under a microscope – some rightfully. More attention is paid now to the ways our police interact with the communities nationwide even with the proliferation of unions using the tired tactic of deny, hide, and obstruct to sweep away the truth. If you need examples, see what has transpired in Cambridge with Dr. Gates; Chicago; Cleveland; Ferguson; McKinney; New York; Saratoga Springs; Sanford; and so forth. While I am appreciative of law enforcement in general, it does not excuse the fact that I am still a black man in a nation that sees me as a threat and in some cases, a criminal solely on appearance.

I thank President Obama for his other initiatives even if I do not agree with them – and this includes Common Core. However, I’ve also found the loudest critics of reformed education are 1) the most ignorant; and 2) deeply vested in maintaining the status quo. I wish he had found a way to end the schools-to-prison pipeline but for many in Congress, that would be a nonstarter due to the fact they benefit from private prisons as their take of being tough on crime. We’ll see what happens when this new generation of addicts gets the book thrown at them – and I’m talking about the upper middle-class suburban kids from the homogenous communities who are doing blow as the media shows multiple drug busts in the ‘hood and on the interstates identifying the suspects and all.

Most of all, I thank President Obama for redefining what it means to be black in America and the hell we endure daily EVEN if some of you don't care.

Those low gas prices ($1.53 for 87 octane today) are helpful to the cause as fracking for oil has really established our place as one of the world’s great players in the oil-producing industry. Keep in mind it was just three years ago gas prices averaged $3.35 per gallon but many of you have short memories and rush to trade your Priuses and Escape Hybrids for F-150s, Ram trucks, and Escalades as if these prices are permanent.



Are there things that need to be done? Yeah, like close Guantanamo Bay, erase Citizens United from our lexicon, and strengthen affirmative action policies. Time will tell where President Barack Obama will stand in the end and I think he’ll be looked more favorably as the years and decades pass by. As I sit here in front of my computer and reread the final State of the Union transcript, I cannot help to think we have come from a dark place back to the light in the eight years. January 20, 2017 will mark a new beginning in history yet you cannot help to appreciate what a different perspective to the nation’s highest office has brought to all of us.





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