There is great excitement in Washington as the United States prepares for the inauguration of Barack Obama.  Those of us who supported equality of civil rights for all citizens feel that the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is closer.  In his famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, MLK said:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Ever since the days of emancipation, black people and other minorities have struggled for acceptance into American society.  Lyndon Johnson signed more education bills into law than any other president, thereby creating a melting pot which forced young people of all races to look at each other closely and find out that they were not that different after all.

Separatists movements like “Black Power” and “Ebonics” failed to get mainstream acceptance, and rather than ending up with a black and white America, we are uniting into a single America.  Interracial personal relationships no longer have the stigma that was so prevalent in the 1960s.  Barak Obama embodies many of the characteristics and goals of today’s America.

When you come to Washington to celebrate, you will have the opportunity to visit many famous landmarks such as The U.S. Capitol, The Library of Congress, and the National Museum of Natural History.

Richard F. Yates

If you live in Bethesda or if you take the Friendship Heights Metro, you are likely to see the lanky Richard F. Yates carrying a plastic bag in his right hand and picking litter with his gloved left hand.  He moves at a furious pace along miles and miles of streets as he picks up pieces of paper, discarded cups, candy wrappers, and many types of litter that people have carelessly discarded.

I saw Mr. Yates a few days ago as he came by my street and I stopped him to ask what motivates him.  Basically, Richard F. Yates is waging a one-man crusade to improve the environment, although he would like more people to join him.  He would like people to stop throwing trash in the streets and to care more about our neighborhoods.  He has talked to corporations to enlist their help by cleaning up the trash on their own grounds, and he has talked to the Montogmery County Police department to try to get better enforcement of anti-littering laws.

Mr. Yates talks about how the pollution of our streets ends up being washed into the Chesapeake basin and the negative impact that this has on the aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay.  He would like to encourage people to care enough and volunteer to keep our neighborhoods free of litter and trash.

Be a good citizen. Put trash its place. Don’t pollute.

  

The United States is headed in a new direction with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.  During the campaign, Obama was able to unify voters with his aspirations for an America where everybody works to help each other.  Obama’s multiracial background, his foreign education, his Harvard education, and his great oratorical skills provided something with which everyone could identify.  The campaign was notable for its length, its aggressiveness, and the gracious concession speech by John McCain in support of the new president-elect.

One of the missteps of the McCain campaign was the expenditure of $150,000 by the Republican National Committee for a wardrobe from high-end department stores for GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.  The luxurious dresses looked fabulous on the former beauty queen, but her appearance did not help middle-class voters identify with the Republicans at a time when the economy had been taking such a serious downturn.

Michelle Obama, by contrast, dressed elegantly and modestly during the campaign, but her choice of dress for Obama’s acceptance speech was a stunning black dress with a bright red design on the ventral portion.  My first thought was “black widow” because some types of black widow spiders have a red hourglass design in their abdomen. I was not the only one to notice this similarity.  There are already many internet discussions about Michelle Obama’s Black Widow Dress, its ominous portent, and Barack Obama’s repeated references to Abraham Lincoln.

Where is the Fashion Police when you need it?