Political memoirs and autobiographies are an interesting subgenre. The perspective of the subject and their actions while in and out of office is often based on where the reader is on the political spectrum.
Former President Barack Obama published the first volume of his memoirs, A Promised Land last fall. The reader is taken on a journey from the President’s early days to the ups and downs of his first term. When we meet the future President at the beginning of the story, he is a young man who is driven and intelligent, but listless. As he matures, marries, starts his family, and his career in politics, he starts to become the man we know him to be today.
After four years of the chaos and noise of you know who, it is a pleasure to hear from a President who is thoughtful, well spoken, and at the very least listens and considers the opinions of others. What I appreciated was his honesty, especially on subjects that are controversial and/or complicated. It takes an adult to be open and candid, especially when dealing with the difficulties that are thrown our way.
The former American President Barack Obama once said the following:
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
In 2018, the Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was an unassuming young woman who decided to tackle climate change on her own. Every Friday, she would cut school and sit near the parliament building in Stockholm to protest the lack of action by the government. What started out as one young girl’s attempt to change the world grew into a movement. The new documentary, I Am Greta follows her journey from 2018 to the present.
Entitled #FridaysForFuture, the movement grew to include hundreds of thousands of people around the world following Greta’s lead. She soon garnered the attention of the media and politicians around the world. But while she inspired millions to make climate change their issue, she was attacked and ignored by some (mostly adults) for her unending commitment to the cause.
This girl is nothing short of inspiring. Given the pressure around Greta and the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome that creates a tunnel vision like devotion, it would have been easy for her to back down. But she has stayed strong and has yet to waver from the cause.
Our college years are for many, the formative years of our lives. The transition between young adulthood and adulthood, these four years will forever have an impact on the rest of our lives.
Barry premiered in 2016 on Netflix. In 1981, future President Barack Obama is an undergrad at Columbia University in New York City. While dating fellow student Charlotte (Anya Taylor-Joy), he is faced with the existential crisis of figuring out who he is as a human being. As one of the few students of color who is dating a white woman, he is the recipient of subtle and not so subtle reactions. If that was not enough, the lack of a relationship with his father weighs heavily on his decisions.
I really enjoyed the movie. We all know the man who was President for eight years. The introduction of the the younger Barack Obama was a revelation. I don’t know about anyone else, but college was not just about the education and the degree. It was about the emotional experience of growing up and figuring out who I am on my own terms.
His journey in this film hit home because I remember going through the same things when I was in college.
Ask anyone above a certain age and they will surely tell you about the stressors in their lives. Whether it is work, school, family, health, or other stressors, they will always be part of our lives in one form or another. It therefore goes without saying that even with the stress that life brings, we all deserve a little bit of downtime.
That includes the President of the United States.
Yesterday, you know who was not found in Washington D.C., doing his job. He was in Virginia, enjoying a round of golf. In ordinary times with another President, a round of golf on a warm Saturday in May would be a non-issue. But this is not, as we all, know, an ordinary time and the man we unfortunately refer to as President isn’t exactly doing the job he was hired to do.
Yesterday, the New York Times printed a partial list of Americans who died from Covid-19. When I see the list, I don’t see the number or a long list of names. I see individual human beings who had were unique in their own way. The only thing that brings them together is that they are no longer here because of Covid-19.
The disgusting irony in that while you know who criticized former President Barack Obama for playing golf, he does the same thing without criticism.
Back in 2016, you know who made the following promise on the campaign trail:
“I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
We all know that politicians make promises on the campaign trail that never come to pass once they are in office. But when said politicians makes the promise and then breaks it when lives are stake, it is more than troubling. It is a reason to ensure that they only service one term.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have vivid memories of the classmate who bullied me in junior high school. Through intimidation and coercion, this classmate used their perceived power to make me feel small and powerless. Looking back, I suspect that she may have had underlying issues that could only be released by being a bully.
For many (myself included), it is obvious that you know who is a bully. Like any bully, he has a weakness, which causes him to lash out even more. That weakness is named Barack Obama. In the past, the former President has been silent in regards to the actions of his predecessor. But in two graduation speeches last week, President Obama spoke in not so vague terms about this administration’s lack of reaction to Covid-19.
As expected, the reaction from you know who was extremely critical and not unlike a creature trapped in a corner, lashing out.
My guess is that he is afraid of Obama. Obama both as President and a human being is everything you know who is not. Not that he was perfect as President, but Obama is ten times better in the role than you know who will ever be.
When one goes into politics, the hope is that it is for altruistic reasons. But sometimes, the altruism can secede into doing what needs to be done (even if it means cross over moral or legal boundaries) to retain one’s position.
Last week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) apologized about his previous statement that President Barack Obama did not provide a pandemic playbook for the current administration.
“I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan, so I clearly made a mistake in that regard,”
What bothers me about this apology is that it does not feel genuine at all. It feels forced. He conceded that he made a mistake because he had to, not because he knew he was wrong. Anyone who was paying even the smallest amount of attention to Washington, D.C. over the past few years could easily see that Senator McConnell had it out for the former President from the start.
We need political leaders who remember why they went into office and who they represent. It seems to be that Senator McConnell has forgotten both. Which from my perspective, is a good reason for his constituents to vote him out in November.
In a normal world, someone who lives and breathes conspiracy theories would be derided as a lunatic (for lack of a better word) and hopefully ignored. But we don’t live in a normal world.
The latest laughable statement to come out of the White House and you know who can be described in one word: Obamagate. In a nutshell, former President Obama is accused of doing the job the American people hired him to do.
As usual, you know who is vague in the details of the accusation, but rushes to judgement. In reality, this is nothing more than a cover-up. The cover-up is that he and his administration failed to protect the United States from Covid-19. Instead of fessing up that mistakes were made, he falsely accuses his predecessor of being at the head of a made up conspiracy.
The difference between a mature person and an immature person is how they respond when they make a mistake. The mature person recognizes their error and at the very least, promises to learn from said error. The immature person blames others and tries to bluff their way out of the error.
It’s not a stretch to guess who is the mature one and who is the immature one in this so called “Obamagate”. Add it to the list of reasons to vote Democrat in November.
A pandemic does not start from nowhere. It starts with a virus that is at best not contained or at worst, ignored completely. With freedom to jump from host to host, it expands at alarming rate, spreading far beyond the place in which it came from.
According to recent news reports, upon discovering Covid 19, the Chinese government did everything they could do to bury the story. This included stopping Dr. Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who discovered the virus, from sharing his findings with his colleagues.
It is undeniable that Covid-19 started in China. That evidence is impossible to refute. That being said, it is also undeniable that China is not the only one to blame for the current pandemic. Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the following about the virus entering the United States:
“We closed the front door with the China travel ban, which was right,” Cuomo told a briefing. “But we left the back door open because the virus had left China by the time we did the China travel ban.”
I can’t agree more. Had the federal government (and the administration of you know who) acted quickly earlier in the year, we would not be in the predicament that we are in. But they didn’t and because they didn’t, our economy is shut down, millions are unemployed and over 50,000 Americans have died from the virus.
Speaking of, did anyone else hear that you know who blamed Barack Obama for the virus?
This continued accusation goes beyond anything that he has said before. It shows how incompetent he is. Instead of manning up and doing what he needs to do, he again blamed his predecessor for his lack of action. It was not Obama who disbanded the team that could have helped to stop this disease in it’s tracks. It was was you know who.
Back in 2014, Obama warned the nation that a future pandemic was coming. Back then, like all of us, he didn’t know when or how it would occur. But he knew enough to know that preparation was absolutely necessary.
Honestly, I don’t know how anyone could vote for you know who. His lies and half truths have become more than something to laugh at. They have become downright dangerous and life threatening.
If nothing else, this should be the reason why he must be voted out of office in the fall. If we don’t, this country as we know it to be will cease to exist.
In the United States, we like to believe that race is an issue of the past. We like to believe that we judge others based on who they are, not by their skin color or family background. But the reality is that race is a potent and highly emotional issue that is far from being resolved.
Back in 2008, when Barack Obama was running for his first Presidential term, the Birther movement claimed that he was ineligible to run because he was not born in this country. They claimed that he was born in his father‘s home country of Kenya, not in Hawaii as is stated on his birth certificate. It surprised no one that these claims are simply based on the fact that he is the first African-American President in American history.
The latest target of these claims is 2020 Presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris (D-California). After her surge following last week’s Democratic debate, there are some who claim that because of her Jamaican and Indian heritage, she is not an “American black”. Of course, you know who’s idiot son retweeted the lie, just as his father spread the lie about his predecessor a decade ago.
This claim is nothing but bullsh*t racism. Up to this point, Senator Harris has proven herself to be up to the challenge of possibly running this country. She is not being denigrated because a voter disagrees with her beliefs and potential policies, she is being denigrated because of where her parents came from.
Elections are messy, complicated and full of potholes. The last thing we need coming into this next Presidential election cycle are lies based on something as superficial as race.
As pie in the sky as it sounds, one of the greatest aspects of America is that who one is at birth does not define what they may or may not accomplish during their lifetimes.
Born in 1956 to African-American parents, she spent her early years in Iran because her father was unable to find a job as a doctor in the United States. After the family re-settled in Chicago, Ms. Jarrett came of age during the turbulent 1960’s and 1970’s. In the early 1990’s, she interviewed a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson who was then engaged to the future 44th President of the United States. That interview was the start of a personal and professional relationship that has led her straight to the White House and to become of the most prominent African-Americans in the country.
As auto-biographies go, this book is pretty good. Ms. Jarrett tells her story in a way that it readable, enjoyable and uplifting without being too bogged down with the facts.
Writergurlny 
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