- Omg, i luv it muah! :) - Melissa Ladybug
A message for President-Elect Obama
I didn't realize until seeing my own image on flickr that I'd deliberately included the word "man." After hearing bell hooks speak today at EKU, I realize what has left me uncomfortable about the election season is what she termed the "assault on feminism," from the vilification of Hillary Clinton to candidacy of Sarah Palin to Michelle Obama giving up her day job to "be a professional wife and hostess."
Obama gave me hope; hooks gives me cause.
--radical, militant FEMINIST librarian.

Comments and faves
ae-j, Anna Ristuccia, infinite.light, Nix Sidhe, and 96 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Grace Lind:)<3 (43 months ago)
:D
tatirijillo (43 months ago)
Ditto!
jodi*mckee (43 months ago)
yes!
emu82 (43 months ago)
i thought the EXACT same thing! wonderful:) abe is 4 and told me that him and his friend Lukey were going to vote for "Arock Obombo"
Anna Ristuccia (43 months ago)
this is probably one of my favorite messages in the whole entire "a message for obama" group. kuuudos
Michael Casey (43 months ago)
Amen!
bea hein (43 months ago)
the world just gets better....even when sometimes is so hard to believe. Nice picture. True message.
Michael Casey (43 months ago)
My 10 year old daughter, Sophia, was SO SO excited that there was going to be a ten year old girl in the Whitehouse. She was asking if I thought they would have friends over, do sleepovers, etc... Makes me feel good.
SierraMargaret (43 months ago)
this made me so happy.
amen!
kiltedlibrarian (43 months ago)
Great sentiment, I thoroughly agree.
cindiann (43 months ago)
@emu82 on election night, my 5-year-old daughter said, "I think Barack Obama should win, because I can tell he really wants to be President."
@MichaelCasey that is AWESOME. I will have to tell Miss5 about his daughters; I didn't think to do that before.
Has his election inspired any of you, personally, to do more, to take more action?
mandella45 (43 months ago)
great thought for a promising future :)
rxk (43 months ago)
very inspiring!
mama_milkers (43 months ago)
These are my exact same sentiments on this election. So powerful!
kenleyneufeld (43 months ago)
I love your tag list; talk about thorough.
MzMullerz (43 months ago)
i feel exactly the same way.
Cranbery (43 months ago)
I agree :) I'm glad that this is not some far off dream that hasn't been realized yet, like it was when the concept of the presidency was first introduced in grade school. It's happened!
pooki24 (43 months ago)
My son is 3 weeks old and though he won't remember it, I told him how important this election was as we watched President-elect Obama's acceptance speech...I look forward to having that same conversation with him when he's 4 yrs old...and 8...and 12...
AnastasiaC @ percivalroad (43 months ago)
right on!!!
sarah lasker (43 months ago)
That is so awesome! <3
Tabitha Rhodes (43 months ago)
well put!
la_mariposita (43 months ago)
what a wonderful realization :)
Nettie C. (43 months ago)
Ditto!!
pnoeric (43 months ago)
YEAH!!!!!!!
Johnsen Frameworks (43 months ago)
And you know what? We feel exactly the same thing over here on the other side of the pond! Congrats!
CogSci Librarian (43 months ago)
I heard Obama say in his acceptance speech that we need to take care of each other. I am trying to be more mindful of and kind to people around me based on that.
mon sobriquet (43 months ago)
I had not thought of that. That is an awesome thing, isn't it?
(Too bad my son is 16. He'll remember the before, but still, very exciting!)
Michael Casey (43 months ago)
warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/title/
S.Louise..Beloved Photography (43 months ago)
Is that why you voted for him? Because I based my vote on experience and knowledge, not color.
emu82 (43 months ago)
@ S. Louis i dont think that was the point of what her message was.
@ cindiann that is adorable! kids have a great way of simplifying things :)
cindiann (43 months ago)
@S.Louise, emu82 is right, that was not my point. Read the article that Michael Casey links to, above.
paulhellyer (43 months ago)
Great photo and wonderful sentiment. Thank you!
cuky1984 (43 months ago)
wow.....wonderful.....you're living an enormus change....I'm so excited to see all this faith, it means that there's still hope....!!!
cindiann (43 months ago)
Does your hat make you Viking-American? :) :)
I had an Asian friend who always referred to me as "Caucasian." It felt weird. I'm sure we each have our own preferences. My heritage is actually Scots-Irish-Crowe Indian-German-American, but that's a mouthful. :)
podbay (43 months ago)
That is SO cool and SO right, Cindi. I am so proud of you. I will share your photo with many friends. :-) Good on ya!
AaronTheLibrarian (43 months ago)
Cindi, @timberline1955's headgear is a "helmet" not a "hat" :)
Plus, I'm such a mutt (Scot-Irish-British-Anglo-Saxon-Bavarian-Prus sian-Onondaga/Iroquois-American) I just refer to my ethnicity as either "american" or "cracker")
Anna Ristuccia (43 months ago)
i keep coming back to this picture and i just have to say again how much i love it.
baja_bride (42 months ago)
Michelle Obama's "day job" is a $300k per year position that her husband set up for her (nepotism)... And what is this important position? "minority outreach for a hospital".. talk about a worthless position that explains why medicine is so expensive... $300k per year on a bogus pr nothing job...
cindiann (42 months ago)
Michelle Obama made $273,618 in 2006 and $103,633 in 2007 from her position with the University of Chicago Medial Center, where she was Vice President for Community and External Affairs. The University of Chicago is privately-funded; I would expect Mrs. Obama's salary to be comensurate with her experience and with the role she played at the University.
Also of note is that the Obamas donated about 1% of their income to charity in 2004 and 5.7% in 2007. philanthropy.com/news/updates/4418/barack-and -michele-oba....
aerosnore (42 months ago)
Sad you voted just because of the candidate's race. We need to get past that.
cindiann (42 months ago)
Funny how many people assume that I had no other reason to vote for the man. Come on.
I am looking forward to his policies on heathcare, the environment, and taxes, just to name a few.
I remember learning in school that African-Americans had only been allowed to vote since the 1960s; I remember being horrified and mystified to hear tales of educational and other segregation, within my parents' memories. I can't really express what it means to me (and I hope to others) that another barrier has been breached, that the thought of a black President will be just as ordinary to my kids as the thought of black citizens voting and sitting next to white students in the classroom was to me, when I was in school.
defrockedlibrarian (42 months ago)
Nuh,uh; I believe HRH will spend the better part of his first term trying to wash the stink of Chicago Machine Politics off his hands (see Blago, Rezko, Ayers, Rev. Wright, et.al.). He's no JFK or the Second Coming, but like JFK he became president with the support of the Daley Chicago Political Machine ("Come early, stay late, vote often").
cindiann (42 months ago)
Did you create that account just so you could leave that comment?
I hope he doesn't take any of the mess to Washington.
cindiann (42 months ago)
Thanks for the civics lesson. :) Can you provide a citation for this information?
cindiann (41 months ago)
The text that you pasted seems to have a lot of citations in it--can you provide a link?
I assume you mean that black men could vote before any women. As a friend of mine at work said, our country is more sexist than racist; otherwise we'd be celebrating a Clinton victory.
Not touching the healthcare comments. I have several Canadian friends very grateful for their health coverage.
cindiann (41 months ago)
You still haven't answered my question about the citation for the information you pasted above.
Please keep your comments civil, ok? You don't know anything about me or how many Canadians I know.
cindiann (41 months ago)
Searching for the text that you pasted, I found this, the first 6 paragraphs of which are pasted above. The Free Republic article was actually a reproduction of a page from a site called Wall Builders, whose mission and content I don't care to give link love to. Since the Free Republic article is the first Google hit for "black voting history," I suspect you pulled from that. The material is under copyright, and as such should not have been reproduced here without permission from the author.
You don't like Obama. I get it. I even respect your right to disagree with me and appreciate your different perspective. I don't know any other truck drivers who drive through Canada, for example. What you said about health care is interesting. But I would appreciate it if you commented elsewhere. I will not argue with you.
And if you can't pick up on tone in writing, I'm annoyed.
cindiann (41 months ago)
Sorry for the disjointed comments, folks. It's unfortunate that flickr deletes comments from blocked users; I wanted to stop the conversation, not delete it. I asked the user to comment elsewhere, and he kept baiting. I printed the original to PDF; if you'd like to read it, send me your email address via flickr mail.
I will not argue politics on flickr. There are plenty of places online and off to do that. My stream is not one of them.
VEB Zardoz the Gravyboat (37 months ago)
And I sincerely hope my kids get to know a world with a militant feminist librarian President in it.
If not yourself, then preferably an asian or latino lesbian jewish blind atheist green one.
I can understand your feelings cindiann, but I love arguing politics on my stream.
I think Flickr's the perfect place for it, as you stand a chance of perhaps reaching and stimulating a debate with [if only a tiny proportion] people who would never go near a "political" website,,, or indeed a library, if dragged there in chains, more's the pity ~ and we need the views of articulate, rational people like yourself to reach them now, as much as at any time (perhaps more?) in recent history.
Besides , you appear to be doing a bloody good job for someone not interested in arguing politics on your photostream ~ maybe you could set up an internet school. and enroll some of those that supposedly do in a class or two?
People aren't any dumber than they used to be,,,they've just got more options to easily access dumbnity 24/7, and less options for the alternative, realistically, given prevailing social trends - fostered and funded by the reactionary political and corporate interests for whom widespread ignorance, greed and stupidity is essential for their survival, and scary seemingly inexorable growth in power and control over us all.
Good on ya, anyway!
Thanks for sharing this, and watch out for the lipstick-clad, soccer-mom, wolf-shooting, totally deluded & retarded fundamentalist religious maniac coming up behind you in a helicopter -

please click on photo:
rcvernors (33 months ago)
Go Obama!
rita banerji (27 months ago)
I was living in Washington when Bill Clinton was running the first time. I remember how many spoke of him as Mr. Rodham!!!
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