It seems silly now, but prior to the presidential election in 2008, I wasn't so quick to disclose that fact. At the time, I worked in a popular discount store where my co-workers were predominantly Black and my clientele ranged the spectrum of races and socio-economic status. One of my clearest memories was of a woman sporting her "Obama for Change" buttons while rudely shoving her basket at me to unpack in a manner I came to understand was an attitude of "entitlement". All the while, speaking in her "outside voice", regaling the check-out line with what a great day it would be when Obama was elected! Ah, my darling hippie liberals. It was as if she thought her behavior could be excused because she was voting for "my" candidate.

Mine was a house divided during the run up to the election. In the primary, I supported and voted for Hillary Clinton. The man of my house supported Barrack Obama. Fortunately, although we had some very interesting discussions, neither of us felt the need to dissuade the other from our chosen candidate. For me, the decision was pretty simple: It's a job for which I was hiring. I read both resumes and combined with what I knew of the character of Clinton and Obama, I chose Clinton. Honestly, all I knew about Obama was that he wrote the book, "Audacity of Hope".

Frankly, I still find it a bit insulting that my support of Obama was/is assumed due to my ethnicity. So, uh..was I NOT supposed to vote in all the other presidential elections because there was no Black candidate? I also have the extra added blessing of being of fair skin and blue eyes. Trust me, anti-Obama talk from me, at that emotionally charged time, would just be asking for a fight. Not to mention, even MORE assumptions!

So, here we are with the first African-American President. I was actually happy he won! C'mon, what member of a minority wouldn't be? What amazes me today is all the rhetoric about him being a communist, socialist, Marxist, etc. ad nauseum. The theme of the entire election and every campaign was CHANGE. Changes are required! I hear/read a lot of criticism of the President's solutions but I don't see any better ideas being batted around! Just a bunch of sound bites and inflammatory back-seat driving. Yeah, his middle name is Hussein--Mine is Janice and I'm not Greek nor am I a Polytheist. Give it a rest already. Perhaps, as a society and a government, we've evolved enough to look at theories and ideas without the catch-phrases and connotations to extract what works from them. Anyone dedicated to the success of this country had better be intelligent enough to do so. I did not hire him but, he works for me none the less. He better be creative and courageous enough to ignore what people will think of him to get the job done.

I do have to say, I don't think people would be so quick to dub President Obama a communist or a non-patriot if he weren't Black. I don't play the race card often but, if the sheet fits...