Dec 10 2008
“I, Barack Hussein Obama…”
Today I got redirected around the block and into the back way of the building where I work, because of a “suspicious package.” I work in downtown Manhattan, and was pretty close to ground zero when 9/11 happened, so this was a little bit scary. (Fortunately, the package was deemed to be harmless.)
Today Politico reports that President Elect Obama will swear in using all three of his names. Excellent. Because it really IS his name (and that really shouldn’t be an issue), because it really does give credence to the fact that a Barack Hussein Obama CAN be elected President of the United States, because it really does speak to America’s resurgent moral authority, and because it lays aside the ridiculous fear of anything even remotely Islamic – I’ll be very happy if the President-Elect does this.
3 Responses to ““I, Barack Hussein Obama…””
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QT,
I’m glad to see your blog post about President Elect Obama’s name. I’ve been wondering throughout the election and even afterward why it was even any big deal at all that people used his full or just middle name to cause a stir of some kind. It’s his name. The people that thought this was an indication of his faith are working from shallow points of reference. I think his election and inauguration will be such a place of passage from collective madness to deliberate sanity for we Americans as a nation.
This will be a time of strengthening our understanding of what we have moved beyond and what we yet need to move into in the areas of releasing historic prejudice and ignorance. My basic life tenant is to embrace everyone I meet with a sense of their integrity, worth and place in this world and my life. I’ve not met anyone with whom I’d spent anytime getting to know that isn’t just wonderful. We need to get over the otherisms passed along by our forefathers and those who still cling to the need to belong so badly to some group or another that they will denigrate someone to fit into that needed group.
Great thinkers like yourself are the breath of fresh air that is needed and welcome in our lives, land and blog spaces. Thank you.
You’re the best,
bjritz
We share that, bj. I too have rarely ever met anyone against whom I’ve harbored prejudice, even if I can acknowledge prejudice on my part in the abstract. Real people transform real people.
And I appreciate very much your expression of openness to others. I’ve always found the willingness to respect people and their right to be who they are as I meet them to be positively transformative for me.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, and for the compliment. I’m glad that you are one more person entering my life.
QT
My pleasure to meet and begin to know you as well. Thanks for your voice and your heart.