Super Bowl + New Prez

I keep writing posts about the Steelers or Obama. They don't have much to do with rice. I know and I apologize. But they make me happy so I want to write about them. Maybe this will be the last post.

Its been a good 2 days. Really good 2 days. The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl!!! Feb 2 they will take on the Cardinals in Tampa. No one expected the Cardinals to make it this far. It will be a tough game, but things are looking good for team in Black and Gold from the Steel City. That happened Monday morning. I watched it and then went to my market. I brought a Terrible Towel to show some people there. Explaining American football in Chinese is hard. Explaining that people wave gold towels around and call them 'terrible' doesn't really translate. At all.

Then I woke up Tuesday and went back to the market. I told me 12 year old friend there that today was like an American holiday and tonight many people are very excited to see a new President take office. She said she didn't know who China's President was. Then she asked me what singers I know. Right. Not everyone shares my excitement.

Luckily I have the internet to resort to to get my Steeler and politics fix. As political blogs are filling up with analysis of Obama's speech and fashion blogs interpret Michelle's clothes, I will spare you the details of my views. But I do want to say one thing [NOTE: let this be a warning if you are sick of hearing about politics you do not have to read anymore].

I just read Obama's biography. The story ends before he goes to law school, but he has an epilogue about what he has done since then. About law school, he said:

"The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power....But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience."

I have never wanted to go to law school. Ever. But I took a lot of Political Science classes in college with people who wanted to go to law school. We had completely opposite interests. I wanted to discuss the reality of society; they wanted to discuss laws, regulations, policies. Class conversations would often not be productive because people were talking past one another. Reading Obama's articulate insight into law school, I think I finally really understand the value of studying the law. I think it takes an intelligent person to be able to have that perspective into law that can make him put his degree to use in productive ways.

There is a lot of discussion about high expectations for Obama. I'm not sure I fit in that category. My concerns this election had little to do with so-called 'political issues' (environment, health care, taxes, etc). Call me a cynic, but I have little hope that the federal government will be able to take care of many of these issues in a clean way based on the structures within which they work. My concerns are much more fundamental, dealing with decision-making and transparency in government. I think many decisions made over the last eight years have been made with ideological hopes and little concern for the reality of society. I trust that Obama is an intelligent guy who wants to make decisions in a way that will be more open and transparent and include a variety of voices.

Such governance has worked for some presidents and it hasn't worked for others. Charisma and intelligence do not automatically guarantee a successful presidency. Although there are plenty of issues Obama has to dig his way out of, for now the 'hope' and 'change' do not come in the form of issues that will change right away, but in integrity and trust.