PHOTO DIARY: "I, Barack Hussein Obama, Do Solemnly Swear..." - A View From Columbia University on January 20, 2009

Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, addresses the gathering crowd.


Low Library Plaza. Photo by Antonio Maria (Antonio Mari Photography, www.antoniomari.com, ASMP Member)









Gathering around "Alma Mater."


My friend, Marilyn (shielding her eyes), and onlooker.














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It's 3:25am and snowing lightly. Again. I stepped outside to have a cigarette and remembered how I was so looking forward to seeing how Precious would handle the snow. Would she run out, get a mouthful and then run back or would she insist on assuming the stalking position and lead me half-way down the block to leave my footprints beside hers?

Why? How?

Why didn’t Hillary Clinton kick her narcissistic husband to the curb after his affair with Monica Lewinsky? Not a marriage, but a political partnership? Political expediency? An enabler? Co-dependent?

Why is “the first black president” unconsciously (or consciously) sabotaging his wife’s campaign with his uncontrolled temper and wagging finger?

What possessed her to tell the ducking-and-dodging-bullets lie?

Remember Socks, the cat? Buddy, the chocolate labrador? Also tools of political expediency?

Hillary’s campaign is in such debt that the Clinton’s might have to go on the dole when it’s all said and done.

I wanted to be excited about this campaign, about the historical nature of a woman and a man of color vying for the nomination; unfortunately, I won’t be voting because I am disgusted with politicians and the entire political system in this country. What is the real difference between Clinton and Obama, both of whom have taken lots of corporate money? How can change be brought about when one is beholden to the big money? I fear that no matter who ends up in the White House, it will be business as usual, and the paradigm shift that was promised will be forgotten by both politicians and the people they claim to serve. [sigh]