Inaugural Annoyance

Tough night last night, not only did Mom have to get up and go to the bathroom (well, it’s actually a commode that sits near her bed – I won’t get into all the details) several times in the night but also my brother had bought a stereo for her and put it in the living room before he left last time he visited. Somehow it got set to go off at midnight so I was awakened from my cough-syrup induced slumber in the middle of the night to a loud voice booming out that it was time for the Midnight Jazz Hour! I had no idea where the remote was or even how to turn the stereo off so had to search for the lamp to look for the power button. Ugh. I read the manual later and think I unset the timer. We’ll see.

We watched a lot of the inauguration activities which about made me sick. A home health aid came in from 8-9 to help out and as we talked about the inauguration, she made my mood even worse when she commented mildly how difficult it was for her to think about how many millions were being spent on the balls when she was having trouble buying groceries and keeping her daughter in college. Realizing that she is only just one of millions who have similar struggles, I was even more disgusted at the events going on in DC tonight and can’t help but compare today with the feudal days when royalty would have banquets while the serfs froze and starved in the fields.

If some country in the middle east were run by a family dynasty that was in power even though a large portion of the country was terribly unhappy with them and if that family dynasty were responsible to threats to other countries using excuses that turned out to be bogus. The United States might be one of the first powers to step in and consider invading to knock the offending dynasty out of power, de-throne the bullies, and place another leader into position who the people might more fully embrace. What happens, though, when that country IS the United States. I can’t even imagine what the rest of the world is thinking when they look at the REAL news (like the BBC news… not OUR news)… and see how unhappy we are… all the protestors and clearly dissatisfied countrymen; and when they read things like the recent headlines that the Bush administration was looking at invading Iran; and then take into consideration the admission that there are/were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What are they thinking about us? I hope they’re pitying us instead of hating us. I know I’d be pitying us. On the other hand… watching this line of people walking into the inauguration area with the president headed by a self-satisfied looking obese woman, I thought, “Oh, the world is just going to hate us.” Why did it have to be an obese woman? You know already that the world hates us fat people (well, I’m not fat anymore – body mass index says I’m normal now, but I feel like I’m a fat person in disguise) – and the world ESPECIALLY hates us fat women PLUS the world thinks we’re all spoiled rich abundant Americans who have it all. It just sort of cements that whole feeling when you see the Dubya’s smug smile following the pompous obese woman. Ugh. I may be glad to be an American. I may be grateful to be an American, but I can’t really say that I’m proud to be an American at this moment. I hate being the bully country.