PRESIDENT Barack Obama was berated in social media for using the n-word in making the point there’s still plenty of room for America to combat racism. (He said race relations are “not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public.”)
He was heckled during an LGBT reception at the White House by a trans-woman protesting the treatment of transgender detainees. (He stopped her, saying “No, no, no, no. Listen, you’re in my house.”)
Both incidents in the past few days were depressing enough to send a nation’s leader sulking, if he were like, say, President Noynoy Aquino. But he’s no PNoy; besides, soon enough, Obama found brighter days.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made same-sex marriage a constitutional right must have brought so much zest that the White House put on rainbow-color lights at its north facade.
He called the decision “a victory for America,” as it “affirms what most Americans believe in”: “when all Americans are treated equal, we are all more free,” a major plank in his platform.
Then the other victory, the high tribunal ruling that saved Obamacare, averting a major political showdown and crisis that would’ve cut out millions in those states who require subsidy for health-care coverage. “The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,”Obama crowed, “not a privilege for a few but a right for all.”
‘Amazing Grace’
He had been in such high spirits that even in grief, eulogizing a slain pastor in Charleston where he named the nine persons shot dead by a white supremacist, his speech sounded like a moving sermon, before he led the crowd in singing “Amazing Grace.”
This lame-duck of a president has chosen not to limp and he’s sprinting on homestretch, a lesson to lame-ducks everywhere.
[paseares@gmail.com]