Two Slashes

I’m not overly political, so I’ll start by saying that I had no intention of watching, looking for news of, or otherwise concerning myself with today’s inaugural ceremonies.  I don’t have anything against the President, but it’s not something I feel I need to drop everything for.

I failed to completely avoid coverage of everything going on.  A pair of posts by d-blogged caught my attention, and I liked both of them so much that I figured I would pass word of them on.  (His blog is worthy of the traffic, so I’m not going to be copying his content.  You can visit for yourself. )

d-blogged first offered a well-worded and inspiring entry on how today marks a turning point in the history of our country.  I particularly found his metaphor for the mirror interesting after later learning that legislation would be posted to the White House website for all to read and comment on.  Reflective of the nation’s desires, indeed (though I can see how the idea might raise some concerns).  I’m also sure that some people are taking comfort in finally finding the one politician who seems to counter the notion that the entire lot of them are crooks.

The second post, however, was more interesting to me, containing only an image of Obama and a caption welcoming the new president.  I took one look at the portrait and immediately drew a parallel to a similar pose most geeks might recognize (and even a good number of non-geeks):  Neo’s first experience stopping bullets near the end of The Matrix.

It’s not merely the pose that interests me, but perhaps the inadvertent symbolism implied.  If you think about it, Neo and Obama both represent the same thing:  hope.  And (while they’re “out-of-frame” in Obama’s case), the bullets could represent threats to freedom, and the Matrix’s agents bear a resemblance to real-world terrorists.  With enough thought, I’m sure just about every major character in the Matrix trilogy could be covered, and with a reasonable explanation to boot.  Whoa.  (Alright, I had to.)

Of course, I could be thinking too far into a digitized image of the president reaching out to the people he represents.  But that’s not any fun, is it?  (If people can look into their grilled cheese sandwich and see Malcolm X…alright, I digress.)

Oh, and today’s Shirt.Woot design is completely appropriate considering the occasion.  I won’t be ordering a shirt, but as of this posting there are still a few left if you want to get your grubby paws on one.  I think I’ll pass on some of the other memorabilia, though.

Even with the Olympics having come to a close about a week ago, the only name people seem to have stuck in their heads at the moment is Michael Phelps, the Olympian swimmer who walked away with eight gold medals and set numerous world records in his run for those medals.

While Phelps was standing on a podium getting the reward for his efforts, a different kind of Olympic-style test of strength has been brewing here in the United States, a contest with plenty of records lining up to be broken of its own accord.  (And I really need to quit doing *#$&ty post introductions like this one.)

I don’t typically pay attention to politics; I don’t really care who’s President, Senator, Governor, or any one of the tens of other elected positions as long as there isn’t a significant impact to my life.  To me, one candidate is as good as another, especially if things work transparently and their actions (and misactions) don’t change the way I go about my daily business, and I have a reasonable expectation that whoever ends up elected is at least as well-qualified as I am for the office they’ve been elected into.

Take Bush for example; everyone (alright, myself included) has bashed him time and time again for the state of affairs in the Middle East.  I have no idea whether I would pretend nothing was happening or send in the troops, launch a few missiles, and have the entire Armed Forces deployed before lunch, and it’s my inability to make a knowledgeable and fair decision that makes him a better candidate for that office than I am.  If it weren’t for the fact that the media constantly bombards you with claims of his failure as a leader of this country (or the war stuff), he might never have even been seen.

This election year has things playing out a little differently than normal, however.  We have an African-American running for President (having nearly squeezed a nomination over the wife of a previous – and notorious – office-holder), and a female vice-presidential candidate, neither of which (to my knowledge) has ever won their respective seats in government.  (I don’t see any ladies on this list, do you?)

What this sounds like to me is not a vote merely for the sake of “exercising our right as Americans” but a popularity contest in the sense of which candidate you’d rather see being awarded a Guiness World Record and which “invisible barrier” will be broken for future elections, if they all haven’t already been shattered by the current candidates.

I would have taken the time here to analyze the scenarios of what would happen should a woman become President (either by vote or incapacitation), but the concepts of a “Presidentess” or the “First Gentleman” are too humorous for me to discuss seriously.

Don’t take me wrong when I mention that, once again, I don’t have enough information to say that either Obama or McCain is superior to the other, but someone has to have noticed that this is bigger than just a four-year vacation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s a chance for the prospective record-breakers to get more material for those bestselling autobiographies that are due to be released any day now (and will no doubt become required reading for at least one high school class due to their lessons in perseverance, dedication, or some other related but meaningless literary tripe).

Unless something motivates me to get off my sorry backside and register to vote (and then actually convince me to go to the polls on Election Day), I’m not going to have any more involvement in this election than retaining my right to the occasional rant.  That aside, it’s up to (the registered voters of) America to choose which recordmaker President/Vice-President they want to take office.

And by the way, someone can remove the parentheses from my keyboard now.  I won’t be needing them for a while.