Although he wasn’t my choice by a long shot, Barack Obama is now “my” president, or, rather, he will be next January 20. The only way I know to change this would be to deny my citizenship and to leave the country, as actor Alec Baldwin said he would do (but didn’t) when Bush was elected in 2000. Abandoning your citizenship is not a literal or even a figurative option for anyone who truly loves America. Equally unthinkable, I believe, is the corrosive civic detachment inherent in any lingering emotional denial that the man in the White House, whether named “Bush” or “Obama,” somehow is less than the president of ALL of us.
“Bush haters” have harmed this country. I don’t understand that hate, and I struggle to forgive it. But, I know this: America will only be hurt further if “Obama haters” somehow come to flourish. Don’t let that happen.
Pay heed to the wisdom of John McCain. Regardless of how you voted, Barack Obama is not “their” president.
He is “ours.”
Rep. Greg Snowden
Clarion Ledger
11/5/8
Magnolia Tribune
