It’s been a good week, both politically and personally. We, as a nation, experienced yet another peaceful transfer of power. Beyond the splendor of “the moment”, as CNN called it, were the images of celebrations in other countries. These were the most moving; children playing in the streets of Africa with “Obama” written across their foreheads and business people enjoying happy hour in English pubs after a long day at work, their eyes glued to the “teles”.
Concerning “the moment”, which refers to the instant Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in, CNN put together a rather amazing collage of photographs using software called Photosynth. A link to the image(s) can be found here. The software takes images taken and submitted by thousands of strangers and “sews” them together into one large image, which is fully navigable. It’s schweet.
Greater writers than myself have done justice to the collective sigh of relief felt by the county, and the world, when George W. Bush took off in that helicopter for Andrews Air Force Base. But, I must say one thing. Please, President Bush, spend time actually learning how to work on your ranch and stay the hell away from the rest of us. Please.
After all of the pomp and circumstance, we are left with a new president. His mandate was only in the form of results of the electoral college, a dated and sinister method of electing a leader, but it is a mandate nonetheless. The onus of repairing this nation is now on him, and some very capable and experienced team members. I wish them all luck.
On a completely unrelated note, though linked by the title of this post, I done got my eyeballs did on inauguration day. Technically, I had implantable lens put in my eyes, which is essentially laser surgery on crack. As I write this, the 48th hour since the procedure has passed, and the future looks bright. 20/20 vision baby . . . with a little blurriness and light sensitivity that should subside over time. (If you want more information on what I had done just leave a comment.) Post procedure, my wife and I spent the day on the couch, navigating the DVR through CNN’s sometimes banal coverage of the day’s events; it’s a bit hard to lay the blame entirely on the reporters though because occasionally absolutely nothing at all was happening. Absolutely nothing I say!
Guantanamo’s fate appears sealed, “trials” for those held there are on hold, new ethics guidelines are in place and every executive order on what was Dubya’s desk has been stopped. And it’s been less than two days. Yeah! More so than after the election, I have a new found hope for the future of this country and its people. With the new administration and my newly enhanced eyeballs, I can truly see clearly now.
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