Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Tomorrow, I’ll write about when I first fell for Hugh Jackman. Today, I’ll tell about how I fell for the president last night.

Sure I’ve been pro-Obama before this, but to me, being president-elect is nowhere near the same thing as actually doing the job. And watching him do his job last night? Whoo was he hot.

It was almost too good to be true. A smart guy like him breaking out the triple threat of

1. history,
2. responsibility, and
3. pragmatism.

These are right up my alley, buddy.

Not to mention—the social contract? Are you kidding me? He broke out the social contract?

I’m probably his forever.

I wish it could be communicated somehow that the morality of good citizenry is more effective, more powerful, and farther reaching than any government run according to a morality of religion. A government of citizenship has character. A government of citizenship has integrity.

When the overarching powers of society operate like that, it does permeate through the rest of life. A trickle-down effect if you will.

An ethical standard does make lies, cheats, and crimes more shameful.

Citizenship and posterity are two things that George Washington especially understood. And that understanding makes a difference. He, now and in his own time, holds a revered spot above all the other Founders.

It heartens me to think that we may have placed another man with similar understandings in office last year.

Tags: Governance, Politics by Ms. SP
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My brother went to the Presidential Inauguration last Tuesday. This is his write-up.

I just wanted to write up something about the inauguration yesterday while the thoughts are still fresh in my mind. There are no words to describe what the feeling was like down there. I was in the masses right in the middle between the Capital building and the Washington monument. The part that amazes me the most was the look that people had because everyone had his/her own personal story and connection to the moment and why they came down there.

Now the story about how to get down there is a story in itself and I will get to that later. Everyone will think it is crazy but for this day, everything was worth it and that was part of the bond everyone had because everyone down there had gone through the same thing just to get there.

I think everyone knows I have been a big Obama supporter form the beginning and been following this campaign throughout. For me to be there at the inauguration was just a sense of pride to feel like I have been a small part of the process and of course hope that things will change in this country. There were many African Americans of all ages. I would estimate the number at over a third to half the crowd. You could see what the moment meant to them but you also met and talked with people from all over the country when you were on the train, at Starbucks, walking to the event, and while you were there.

Now I just wanted to give you a feel of what the logistics were like because it was crazy. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience and you really needed to have that level of commitment to get there. My day started out leaving my apartment at 3:00. I was meeting up with some friends at the plan was to get on the first train out at 4:00 AM. Needless to say the start of the lines was right there getting into the train station.

By time everyone got together we made it into DC at 5:30 and walked to the mall. By the time we settled into our position at 6AM, the middle of the mall is as far as we got. So it was there that I stayed till the event started at 11:30 AM. After 7AM you did not want to move and go anywhere because you would have never been able to make it back.

It was cold but you had to know that going in. I really didn’t feel it till after the event and here was when things got really crazy. DC was in total lock down. They had closed streets and access points to begin with and with the amount of people there in the mall they decided to close off access to the parade route.

If you are not familiar with DC, closing off the parade route meant people could not cross back into the city from the mall and with a million plus people there nobody really knew where to go. After tracing back and forth in the crown we finally found some security people that told us the only way to go the direction we needed was the end of the mall. Keep in mind the mall is about two miles in length. So we basically hung out around the Washington monument waiting for the crowd to thin out.

That is where the cold really hit. But we finally made it out and had to walk another mile after getting out of the mall to access a train station that was not flooded with people. You might have seen the stands had no people for the parade. Well what happened was most people could not get there and it was too long to out in the cold to make it through even if you wanted to. I made it back to the apartment at 4 PM with many memories.

Tags: Life, Politics by Ms. SP
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Today, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested. People call what he does “pay for play.” In other words, you have to give him something he wants in order for you to get what you want.

In my neck of the woods, that’s business as usual.

I do want to say that I’m a strong proponent of “innocent until proven guilty.” For me, the governor should be treated as an innocent man until his possible conviction in a court of law. But, treating someone as a legally innocent man and knowing (as in: I don’t have any proof, but it’s so true.) that he is guilty can be two separate things.

In a democracy, we always get the government we deserve. I would extend that to the last two terms of George W Bush as well. Former governor Jim Edgar agrees with me.

In Chicago, everyone who pays attention to government knows that our top three executives, Governor Rod Blogojevich, Mayor Richard Daley, and Cook County President Todd Stroger, are as crooked as they can be. Chicagoans, however, are still realistic. Some of the ways they wheel and deal are accepted. Some are even praised. But the fact that they’re dirty, it’s understood.

It’s a thing that is always there in the background.

That’s why the Feds’ press conference today was so ugly to my ears. No matter how bad I thought things were, it was still a huge shock to have all his laundry laid out like that. I’m mad. I’m embarrassed. But I can’t say I didn’t see it coming.

In that way, as much as the pundits will say that the governor has let his state down, I will say that we let ourselves down. Just watch Daley and Stroger get reelected next time.

To be fair though, Chicago totally depends on the machine to operate. If we tried to clean things up, everything would stop working. Almost everything around here depends on relationships and the trails of money.

We need our city to work so why not have the best machinists in place to run it? Rich Daley has been a central cog for so long, he’s probably the Final Cylon.

Yes, I know. It sounds hollow to my ears too.

The bottom line is, we’ve seen this before, and we’ll see it again. In the Presidential election, the country decided that things have gotten too bad to let continue on the same path. I don’t think we’ve hit that point in Chicago yet. Let’s see what happens when they raise the sales tax again.

Tags: Chicago, Governance, Politics by Ms. SP
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