44 things about POTUS 44

image from groc

this meme is fairly simple:

• each blogger posts 44 things about the 44th President of the USA
• somewhere in the post, the tag #44:44 is included, so all the posts are more easily tracked
• each blogger then tags 4 other bloggers (or 44, if they are wacky) to invite them to post their own 44 things about the 44th President on their blog

to get the ball rolling: I am tagging horse pig cow, rod dreher,  ragamuffin diva, akma, feminary, marko, danah boyd, dj chuang, jen lemen, david kuo, rudy carrasco, mary hess,  peter kim,  karen@onehouse, jordoncooper.com, bill bishop, lisa samson, mike todd, patton dodd, ariele @ saint vespertine,  Hugo Schwyzer, Surfette, shelton @ In Reformation, kathryn jean lopez,   rick @ yes yes yes ... is the answer, Ashley Benigno, Guy Kawasaki, susie bright, Lil' Davy's Harp, Renee, will @ yearns&groans,  kate @ social abacus , Tall Skinny Kiwi, connie reece, Ancient Evangelical Future

here are my 44:

1. I hope the Obamas had 1 hour today to breath
2. I wish the Obama daughters have as healthy a childhood as they can - at least as good as Jenna & Barbara Bush, Chelsea Clinton or Amy Carter
3. I can imagine that the Obama administration will be only 1 term - so my advice is work fast, make today count
4. I believe that the people of America elected our politicians to office - yes.we.did.
5. I hope the Obama administration works fast to help people with homes and without homes, not just big companies and complex financial markets
6. I suspect some of the voting was not completely fair
7. I hope Barack Obama changes his policy on abortion in America, responding to a new moral leadership that leaves behind the tired frame of the last 40 years
8. I wish that more young people would take their responsibilities as a citizen seriously - I wish that more old people would also
9. I dream of a President who will take a 100 year view, rather than 100 days - working to leave behind a world that is worthy of the generations that came before us and those that come after us
10. I am convinced that Barack Obama is a Jesus follower, which may prove problematic for people in America and around the globe
11. I hope that the Obamas are able to find a good faith community to be a part of in Washington, D.C.
12. I really wish that Barack Obama would keep listing to sermons from Pastor Wright -- and Pastor Warren, Pastor Myer, B16, Rowan Williams, Rene Padilla, Pastor Hagee and Pastor McLaren
13. I sincerely wish there were more non-white guys -  women pastors, people of color, even those from non-Christian traditions -  who were more prominent as moral leaders on a national level in this next administration
14. I hope that my family - and all families - can reach for reconciliation after a season of elections that served to separate people who love one another and their country
15. I wish that in this next administration, family values valued single moms and step-parents and gay parents and kids who live on the street just as much shiny, happy people in the suburbs
16. I hope that somewhere in heaven, Obama's many families are celebrating and sending him wisdom
17. I hope that generations of slave owners and slaves are having a family supper in heaven, celebrating that America did this wonderful thing
18. I will work for the freedom of expression that allows for all POVs, even those I see as racist or even menacing
19. I hope that will.i.am does not become the Poet Laurete of this country - Black Eyed Peas can not take that loss
20. I wish Scarlette Johansen would stop emailing Barack Obama - my email is bob.carlton@gmail.com
21. I fear that our country is still capable of violence that is shocking in its awesome destruction, even with a President
22. I wish I believed we live in a post-racial, post-partisan world
23. I hope that I believe that way a year from now
24. I hope Joe Biden can stretch for a goal of no more than 3 gaffes a week ~ I realize I would settle for no more than 3 gaffes a day
25. I sorta wish Joe Biden were placed in that lock box that Al Gore was so fond of
26. I hope that people in the Bush administration who lied our way into a war are held accountable from a legal POV
27. I sincerely hope that Obama is smart enough to hire Lessig as the CTO of America
28. I hope that people in the Bush administration who did not keep this country financially secure are held accountable from a legal POV
29. I wish the Clintons - Bill and Hillary - would get over themselves and work solely to help this country and this world
30. I wish that George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove would shut up for 1 straight year
31. I hope that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid improve as leaders - they can only go up from here
32. I will work to stay as connected with the long, demanding climb of this country as I have during this election
33. I will not watch FOX and gloat after I get it out of my system (this will begin sometime in a month or so)
34. I hope that the beloved community of people of faith get out sh&* together and start playing a role of moral leadership, rather than being sheeple who blindly ape the twin towers of marketing and politics
35. I wish gay people could get married - or that at a minimum, people of faith would stop spending millions to keep gay people from getting married
36. I wish that sometime in the Obama administration, divorce got 3.719% of the attention that the "defense of marriage" gets
37. I hope my daughter watch Michele Obama and learn from her lessons that Lisa & I could not give them
38. I suspect that there will be a backlash - sooner rather than later - against all "those people" who are so excited about this election
39. I commit to standing with "those people"
40. I have been to 1 political rally in a field in Florida for Barack Obama - I will NOT do this again in 2012
41. I am awed by the non-violent revolution that John Lewis described this election as
42. I am just as fearful of the violnce our citizens will unleash as I am of the violnce citizens of other countries will unleash
43. I am now aware that 44 is a much bigger number than it first appears
44. I wrote a book with Ariele Gentiles about the 44th President

       

Barack Obama: An American Story: Barack Obama: An American Story (Invert)
the title is sorta like a football chant

our 44th President is smiling right at YOU on the cover of this book

if you happen to have a spare $10,  you should buy copies, it is a good book, you would like it - it would make a nice Christmas present, door stop, projectile weapon, even handy as a fire starter or a note pad

Comments

[AMA]

I'm sorry, but 44 is a really large number; my imagination relative to Barack Obama -- even Barack Obama -- doesn't extend that high.

[renee]

mine is also up. (wow 44 IS a lot!)

ianua.org

[journeyingrick]

re no. 20 - please pass along that mine is rick@journeyifc.com;
re no.s 14-18 - amen, amen, amen
re the whole shabang:
big wet sloppy man kisses!!!

[Mike]

OK Bob... Mine is up here.