Inauguration Day, 2009

It's been a big day in America. "We inaugurated our first African-American president". And how I hope I never hear that stupid statement again.

In the first place, it is not what millions of Americans have celebrated today. What they have celebrated is the color of the new president's skin, and his age. My neighbor, Jeremy, a chemistry professor at New Mexico State University, is an African-American. Born and raised in South Africa, Jeremy has real African heritage, which Barack Obama does not. But, Jeremy's skin is as white as mine, naturally. No one sees Jeremy as a "African-American", which he truly is.

Africa has no monoply on people with dark skin and not all Africans have dark skin. All around the earth, in the tropical zone, people have dark skin. On the Asian sub-continent, in parts of South America, in New Guinea. It is a product of the relentless sun on human skin. Has nothing to do with anything else.

Back before broad-brimmed hats, long sleeved shirts and SPF-15 sun screen and before we learned about nutrition, dark-skinned people who moved to northern, or far southern latitudes, no longer needed built-in protection from the sun. Children born with dark skin in these colder climates, were deprived of the beneficial effects of the sun's rays. Those odd ball kids born with lighter colored skin lived longer and thus re-produced more. Gradually the skin of the population lightened. White races of African-Swedens, or African-Norwegians were created.

Scientists believe modern humans originated in Africa and spread throughout the world. We are all African-something-or-other.

The first African-American president? Give me a break.

Americans, thanks to advertising, movies, magazines, and a love of athleticism, worship youth. Old folks are just not popular with Americans - at least until you become one. So, every generation gets excited about persons of authority who are closer to their own age.

George W. Bush ascended to the presidency in a close contest, which many Americans believe was not legitimate. He was disliked by many from the day of his own first inauguration. He came to Washington as a "Uniter, not a Divider", and did everything he could to unite. He joined with the liberal Senator Ted Kennedy on some legislative matters, and was rewarded by Kennedy standing up in the U.S. Senate to declare that "Bush lied, lied, lied..."

But, clear-thinking Americans saw the real George Bush and re-elected him for a second term. His opponents were now enraged beyond all reason.

For the 2008 election cycle, there were a number of credible candidates of both parties. But Barack Obama seemed to represent the farthest possible thing from George Bush. He was young. He did not talk about his religious faith. He declared that we should get out of Bush's war in Iraq. And, "did I mention that he is black?" The liberal American press fell in love with him and saw to it that the public heard all the good stories about Obama but only the bad ones about George Bush.

So, what we did today was to inaugurate a well-educated young man who is totally unknown by the American public. Inexperienced, compared to others, yes. But I have come to think less of experience, as I see more and more "experienced" politicians caught up in some sort of scandal.

Obama may turn out to be a great president. I sincerely hope he does. What concrerns me most about him today is that he does not seem to understand that the policies of F.D.R. only deepened the recession of the 1930s. Perhaps he will prove that he does understand our history. Perhaps he will make the right decisions to help us end this current lull in our economic growth.

And perhaps, just perhaps, people will quit calling him our first African-American president.