I will be posting some of my writing from my time as the Editor-in-Chief of Biddeford High School award-winning newspaper, The Roar.
The trend sweeping the nation, the “cool” thing to do, become a fan of President Barack Obama. It isn't the hula hoop craze of 1958, or the revolution of fans The Beatles created in the 1960's. Then again, maybe it is.
President Obama's campaign in the fall of 2008 had a force of youth voters. These hypnotized voters are still following the rockstar they created leading up to and after election day. Whether they understand his policies, or not, it does not matter. They are drawn into his rhetoric and promise of “change.” They continue to purchase his memorabilia and fix themselves to the television as he speaks.
The fascination is seen throughout Biddeford High School. Students with the pins on their backpacks, the t-shirts, and some have President Obama as their cell phone's wallpaper. On the largest networking website, Facebook, students from BHS click to attend the President's speeches. As I watched President Obama give his first Address to Congress, I received text messages from his 'fans'. They praised and hyperventilated over the President as he spoke of the same things he has for the past 6 months. Even Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi looked like a hysterical President Obama fan, leaping out of her seat to applaud over and over again.
I support President Obama. I want him to succeed. I want our country to succeed. The selling of President Obama action figures, I do not support. The celebrity status he has been given, I do not support. The supporters who can't intellectually speak on behalf of the President's policies, I do not support.
The direction and the intentions President Obama has for our country is highly commendable. President Obama is going to make mistakes. He is going to have great achievements. We need to support him not for who he is, but what he can do for our country. It is ridiculous to even consider our President as some type of cultural icon as he sits in the Oval Office, deciding the fate of our nation.
If you want to drive the hype and the fad by becoming a President Obama fan, it should be done once he is out of office. Creating this fame for the President as he is only three months in office shows no outlook on the future he could be leading us to. The 'followers' of President Obama will be notorious not for their support, but for the hysteria created, despite the many years left for him to create error.
How will the fans feel if our country is paralyzed by his policies? The beloved celebrity no longer the savior of mankind, no longer the legend of greatness. The entity of the icon would be torched, and the fans will be frowned upon for the excitement they created without the support of a conclusion. I ask the fans of President Obama that they judge our President after his time in office is complete not as he sits in office with his hands clenched on our future.
It all seems irrational to go crazy for the President of the United States. However, as we enter the third month of his time in office like the devastating fourth month of the hula hoop and the 1970 breakup of The Beatles, the craze may all come to an end.
[Edit for relevancy] Or the misconceptions created by the right will spark a craze of another sort: Hate.
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