"What a moment for the man, what a moment for the country."

I've never watched the Presidential Inauguration before, so I was kind of excited when I walked into work and my boss had the live feed playing on her computer (I was actually rather surprised as well; my boss is the most right-wing Republican I have ever met, and she was not happy when Obama won the election). I sat down just in time to hear the announcer say that the website had just changed, and now recognized Barack Obama as the President of the United States, moments before he was officially sworn in.

I've never really followed politics--I've never really cared that much about them--but I really enjoyed watching the Inauguration. I've since heard many people comment on how Obama stumbled over the oath and even got lost at one point. Personally, that was my favorite part! Well, that and the fact that both he and Michelle nearly started laughing. Hey, guess what, the President is HUMAN! --gasp!-- I like that Obama isn't the best public speaker we've ever had; if he was perfect, who could relate to him?

The only part of the Inauguration that I wasn't overly fond of was Reverend Lowery's poem. The benediction he delivered was very appropriate and touching, but the racial rhymes that he ended with, I found to be slightly offensive.

"When black would not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead man, and when white would embrace what is right." - Reverend Joseph Lowery

Even the crowd was laughing! If he did mean it in a joking way, then it probably wouldn't have been so bad. But if it was supposed to be serious, I thought it sounded like he was making fun of all the races, and I was less than impressed. I'd love to know anyone else's thoughts on this if you'd care to share.

"Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America." - President Barack Obama

Lincoln high school students rally for milestone events

MLK Day Focuses on Hope, History

Unlike most of the Martin Luther King Jr. articles that I expected to find, this one was not only local, it was all about high school students. I really enjoyed the way the article tied together the milestone of our first black president's inauguration tomorrow and the MLK holiday, as well as the student quotes used in the article: “One question I want you to ask yourself is ‘what have you done to further the message of Martin Luther King Jr.?’” Harris said
“Do you believe we can all graduate and do something with our lives after we graduate? You better, because before long we’ll be adults,” he said. “We need you to believe we can reach our highest potential.”

However, there is no quicker way to lose my interest in an article, no matter how good it may be, than grammar mistakes. There were several instances where quotation marks should have been used and weren't. For example: It is historic that America elected a black man as president, but it is more significant is that America has moved past race enough to elect someone based on character and qualifications, she said. And How about the 34,000 public school students, he asked, and all the students in Lincoln?

hello world--real original, huh?

Hey everyone. This is my first official blog post for my JMC 425 Blogging/Commentary class. I'll be sharing my opinions on many different media forms throughout the next few months, so I hope you'll stay tuned.

Here's a little about me, just in case you were wondering:
I'm a senior at the University of Nebraska - Kearney, originally from the tiny Nebraskan town of Harrison. I'm due to graduate in May with my BA in English w/a Writing Emphasis and a minor in Journalism. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll get my own personal column in a newspaper or magazine someday, so this should be good practice for me. Who knows, you might have good reason to remember my name.