Geekiest. President. Ever! - Democratic Underground

tomreedtoon

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Wed Jan-21-09 11:45 AM
Original message

Geekiest. President. Ever!

This is a post from a friend of mine who uses the moniker "Voice of Kiki." (Kiki is a ferret.) I asked her to post this here, for a completely different look at what Obama means.
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You can say what you like about his politics. You can discuss his plans. You can even talk about about the history he's making as our nation's first African-American president. However, there is a frequently overlooked landmark taking place today that shall be my focus.

Barack Obama will be America's first geek president.

This, I feel, deserves special mention. We'll have a geek in office. A geek leading the free world. This, my friends, is truly momentous.

That our ever-so-soon-to-be president is an unabashed geek cannot be denied. The man has a comic collection that rivals or exceeds most of ours. He has read all the Harry Potter books. He loves his Mac laptop (I'm letting this one slide). When joking about how people saw him as a savior, Obama chose not a Biblical reference but instead insisted that his father's name was Jor-El. This is a man who refused to give up his BlackBerry because he didn't want to live in a bubble of politics and respected his friends to tell him if he was acting like a fool. When he wrote an open letter to his daughters in Parade magazine, Obama couldn't help but toss in a Spider-Man reference. When Joe Biden was finally chosen as running mate, Barack Obama revealed the news not in a press conference or interview. He did it via Twitter. (I wonder if the location on his Twitter account will be updated from Chicago to DC later today.) His campaign relied heavily on grassroots efforts coordinated online. The man is "one of us."

However, I don't think it's the pop culture references and the tech savvy that really prove this. I think it is his attitude. For all the complaints people hurl in our direction for being emo or callous, I think geeks are inherently optimistic. Why else do we constantly work for change? Why else do we throw ourselves into scientific pursuits? Why else would we work to create new technologies and look beyond the stars?

Humanity is a constant disappointment to us, yes. But why is that? It is because we know that humanity can be better. We should be better. We can and should be inclusive. We can and should be willing to see past racial, religious, gender, sexual, and physical differences. We know that we can and should be a glorious light in the universe and an inspiration and example to any and all other life that may share this existence with us.

So we look to Orwell and Huxley and heed their warnings. We follow Roddenberry, Asimov, and Straczynski who teach us acceptance and tolerance. And we take the words of Lee, Eisner, and Moore who have given us our charge to be vigilant and responsible for our fellow beings. We take it all and we form a community dedicated to the belief that humanity is meant for more. Humanity can and must be better.

We have seen the Orwellian darkness threaten to consume us. And we, as a people, stood up to the darkness and said "No more!" This gives me hope.

Allow me to paraphrase Lennier speaking of Delenn in Babylon 5 (s4 ep13): Obama does not walk in the same world you and I walk in. He does not see the same world you and I see. In his world we are better than we are, we care more than we care. We act towards each other with compassion. I much prefer his world to that of my own, and I will not allow anything to threaten that.

Stephen Colbert, shortly after the election, asked how science fiction would show people that we're in the future if America really does have a black president. Well, my friends...

Welcome to the future. May it be all we know it can and should be.

Love, huggles, and hope,
Kiki