Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day - and Happy Inauguration Day to President Barack Obama

A truly extraordinary man and a beacon for those who believe in peace and equality: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day (his assassination still saddens me deeply, so many years later) and Happy Inauguration Day to our wonderful president, Barack Obama, whose presidency MLK helped make possible.

I am honored and proud to have a president who is a caring human being, intelligent, very hard-working and quietly ambitious to achieve so much in his second term.

Washington has not defeated him - neither have all the ridiculous haters in this country who, from the start of his presidency (and for reasons which more often than not, I am certain, relate to racism), have tried to deny and defeat it.

He is a two-term president, reelected by more than half of this nation. He is our president, we should respect him - and not allow the likes of the moron Donald Trump to be so offensive toward him.

Photograph courtesy of Alex Wong/Getty Images (Guardian Newspaper)

May President Obama achieve great things in this, his legacy term. I wish him the greatest success in making our economy fairer for everyone, for reforming immigration, for making global warming a real and immediate issue that we must deal with (which it certainly is) and with reforming our ridiculous access to weapons of mass destruction (i.e. guns) to the greatest possible extent.

I also hope that he makes some key Supreme Court appointments and leaves our nation as changed and transformed for the 21st Century as it is possible to do.

I wish he could enjoy two more terms after this.

(You may also like to read this Huffington Post piece: MLK Day 2013: Nation To Honor Martin Luther King Jr. As Obama Is Inaugurated and view these remarkable images from The Guardian newspaper, Inauguration Day in pictures as Barack Obama is sworn in - live updates, from which the image above, of President Obama standing as Beyonce performs the national anthem, is taken.)

Comments

The High Tower Apartments and The Long Goodbye

Photograph by Dwayne Moser. This beautiful apartment complex in Los Angeles is called the Hightower or High Tower Complex (the High Tower name refers to the central elevator, I believe), and was designed in 1935-1936 by architect Carl Kay - and made famous in 1973 by my favorite film, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (see Why I Love Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye ). Although Altman used the building as Philip Marlowe's apartment in his somewhat post-modern Long Goodbye (the film plays with references to Old Hollywood and opens and closes with the song, Hooray For Hollywood ), the building has another direct connection to Raymond Chandler. It was apparently the inspiration for Chandler in his book, The High Window (the first Chandler novel I ever read), in which Chandler describes the residence of Philip Marlowe as being on the cliffs above High Tower Drive in a building with a fancy elevator tower. (Thanks to the Society of Architectural Historians Southern...

Andrew Hale and Sade

Sade in concert in San Jose. All concert photos Copyright © 2011 Alexander Chow-Stuart. On Thursday evening, we saw our longtime friend Andrew Hale perform with Sade at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, in one of the most beautifully conceived and produced concert performances I have ever seen. Sade is a rare musician, in that she and the band only write, record and tour every eight to ten years, so that in a very real sense you can measure your life by her. The band's music is always fresh and always newly conceived - for their previous album, Lovers Rock , they stripped everything down musically to a minimalist sound and banished the saxophone that had been so much a part of Sade's heavily soul- and jazz-influenced style. The latest album, Soldier of Love , released in 2010, is one of the most tender, moving collections of songs yet, from the astonishingly beautiful Morning Bird , which features exquisite keyboards from Andrew, to the soulful, retro, r...

Hyperbole And A Half - Why I'll Never Be An Adult

All images copyright 2010-2012 Allie and Hyperbole And A Half. These images are from one of my absolute favorite online comic strips/blogs/sites, Hyperbole And A Half by Allie . This particular post is called: This Is Why I'll Never Be An Adult - and these are just a few selected panes from a very funny and telling sequence: To check out the entire strip, go to this particular link for Hyperbole And A Half. You might also want to check out the Hyperbole And A Half Store , which has many goodies such as this wonderful Bird T-shirt . Other designs can be applied to whole variety of products, such as T-shirts, mugs and iPhone cases (please note that not all designs are available for every product). I love the Bird T-shirt because it makes me think of our much adored lovebird, Miso, who I'm certain spends a great deal of his life squawking these words in a language we can't comprehend because we're too stupid: Please visit Hyperbole And A ...

Alexander Stuart

Search This Blog