Obama to the Rescue!

Woohoo, it’s official! Barack Obama is the new President of the US of A.

This was the first time I watched any presidential inauguration, and the first time I ever made a point to. But since I had no other comparison for “how things went” on inauguration days in the past, I decided to look them up on YouTube.

Oddly enough (insert sarcasm here) the first videos that popped up were protests against the previous President’s victory. Beneath them were comments from Bush supporters, who all seemed to share the view that the protesters were, basically, scumbags. One user even thought it was “ironic” that people would protest someone who’s responsible for upholding their right to protest.

Okay, if you can’t demonstrate your beliefs through protest, why would someone think they have the right to express theirs through any other means? (Like on YouTube, for example.)

But it’s not really that shocking, is it? That a self-professed Bush-fan would argue against the right to protest – or in other words, that whole First Amendment/Freedom of Speech-thing that serves as the foundation for a healthy democracy.

While “Democracy” has yet to be completely realized in the United States or elsewhere, seeing Obama’s inauguration I’m glad many of our southern neighbours had someone to vote for, rather than against; someone whose message they can actually care about and believe in; someone who’s “of the people, by the people, for the people,” as one of The Greats put it.

I guess only time will tell if he is.


(Image: iphonesavior.com)