We have a half black President, our previous secretary of state was a black woman; we currently have a woman serving as our secretary of state for this president. We've had two female supreme court justices. When does race and gender stop playing a part in decisions that should be based on merit? Your gender doesn't make you qualified, just as your race does not. Isn't that what the whole affirmative action movement was about - to base decisions on people's qualifications and ensuring that people had equal access to those opportunities? We do have equal access. Merits should be the deciding factor. It should not matter that Sotomayor is Hispanic, or that she is female. What should matter is her ability to judge cases fairly and adhere to the Constitution of the United States. Can she evaluate the merits of each case and make decisions about the legal issues as they apply to the US Constitution? If she is the best PERSON for the job, her ethnicity and her gender do not matter.

Making decisions about someone's capabilities based on their race and gender is exactly the opposite of the goals of the Civil Rights of 1964.

Get with the program America. Using anything other than qualifications and merits to judge someone's capabilities is a slippery slope that our country does NOT and should NOT go down.

 

This election wasn't a close one. The majority of the popular vote and the majority of the electoral college went with Obama. There wasn't any doubt that the majority of this nation were interested in "Hope" and "Change". Not many people, especially not a majority, stopped to question what we were hoping in and what we were changing to. The media did their part to diminish unflattering information about Obama, and only a minority did the research and read the books to understand the history of Obama's relationships, business dealings, family ties, cultural ties, and political policies. The rest of the nation was focused on electing the first black president of the United States and getting on to the business of hoping and changing.

Well, here we are with a president who gives out iPods and DVDS to fellow leaders of nations; a president who bows to the king of Saudi Arabia - we are Americans- we don't bow; a president who accuses the nation of arrogance; a president who "rebukes" North Korea's missile tests; a president who cannot seem to function without the use of a teleprompter, and a president who continues to select cabinet members who are corrupt and dishonest.

So, did the majority of American's get what they wanted when they elected Obama?

I am not sure. I am sure, though, that if this is what Americans wanted for their own country, our nation has deeply imbedded problems that are going to have to be brought to light, addressed, and corrected before we can get back on the right track.

Let's hope the Rolling Stones were right "You Can't Always Get What You Want, but You Get What You Need". We need real change from a money hungry, power obsessed, egotistical government to one where the elected officials answer to their constituents, and we need hope that our governing documents will be upheld. So, America, I hope instead of getting what you wanted, we get what we need.