Black Pres-o-dent

Well, I guess people were so fed up with Bush and Republican politics and their identification with the morass the country has fallen into that they actually elected a Black president.  I wonder if white people justified their vote in the back of their minds with the idea "well, he's half white" or are we really turning a corner where race will not be so important in the way we deal with each other.  Let's hope the latter is true.

I'm afraid for Obama.  Sure, the first thought is, black president, he'll be a big target for assassination.  That's not why I'm worried.  The president of the United States is always a target for assassination so, that's nothing new.  I'm afraid for Obama because people have placed so much faith and hope in him to the point that it seems he's some neo-Messiah come to deliver the country and the world from all of its social and financial ills.  The reality is:  We are reeling from 8 years of mismanagement, bone-headed policies, moral decline, greed, and deceit and this will not be fixed overnight.  My fear is that Obama, no matter how ingenious and dedicated he is, will be fighting an uphill battle to correct all the problems he faces and that he will be blamed for lack of progress or a worsening economy.  I think the country's financial decline has a downhill momentum and will get worse before it gets better.  I just hope that the average Joe the Plumber and hockey mom realize this and aren't quick to second guess their choice of voting for Obama if it doesn't get fixed over night.  Those of us who consider ourselves "black intelligentsia" worry that any perceived failure of Obama will be a perceived failure of black people in general; this is, of course, not a new concept.  We are always made to represent our entire race, especially when it comes to negatives.  I can only hope that the spirit that drove a majority of the American public to seemingly, finally, ignore race and elect the first black president will persist when Obama has pitfalls and gaffes that inevitably come with occupying the most powerful and complex political office in the world.  I also hope that a black man occupying this office will serve as a much needed beacon of hope for black people, especially young black men.  We are always told that we can be whatever we want in this country if we put our minds to it.  These are encouraging words, but are often not reinforced by tangible examples.  Now it seems that we have the ultimate tangible example for this concept in Obama.  I hope that this effect will trickle down to young black men, like those that I often operate on, who feel that they are lesser men in the eyes of the world and now will be able to hold their heads a little higher and better believe that they can actually be whatever they want if they put their minds to it.

Road to the White House...

I wonder if America is really ready for a black president?  Maybe a better question is, has America matured enough to see that Obama is just another man with ideas running for the nation's top office, his race notwithstanding.  Do they really understand that he is similar to the John Kerrys the Joe Bidens, the Al Gores, the Bill Clintons and even the Bob Doles and the George W. Bushes of the world: they are all men who aspired to  that office (some successful, some not) and their ideas and their policies are what inspired people to vote for them.  Watching the frenzy of news coverage around Obama and watching all the excitement that he has generated in this MTV/TMZ world, I can't help but wonder if this enthusiasm is not fueled in a major part by the "star quality" that Obama has brought with his uniqueness, uniqueness largely founded on the fact that he is not the typical "old white guy" that for centuries we've been used to when it comes to presidential candidates.  Are people really listening to his ideas, sold on his policies, understanding his doctrines, solidly behind his agenda or are they intent on voting for him like they vote for their favorite  music video or movie star?  I like to believe that through all of this hype that at least a good majority of Obama's supporters are supporting him because they really think he is the smartest most qualified man for the job and that they are not voting like they would have voted for their high school class president: for the coolest guy on campus, cooler than the other guy.  I have hope and then I turn on TMZ and I'm scared....

we'll see what happens.

in the beginning

Ok....

Yet another attempt to start blogging for me...maybe this one will take off.  For those of you that don't know me or those of you who feel you don't know me as well as you should (he he), My name is Bryan D. Hubbard.  I am a surgeon in Los Angeles and I do trauma and I work as an indentured servant for The Department of Health Services at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation  Center. Those of us who work there like to shorten that mouthful of a title to "The Gulag", "The Ranch", "Rancho Honor Farm", or simply "Shit's Creek".

I was born in Philadelphia and raised in a suburb of Philly called King of Prussia (weird name, maybe we'll discuss it in a later blog).  Most people who've heard of my little town when I tell them where I'm from their faces light up and say "Oh yeah, the place with the huge mall".  Yes, that was our claim to fame; for a while the Plaza and Court at King of Prussia were the largest mall complex in the United States until they built the Mall of the Americas in the midwest.  Forget that the area is rife with history; George Washington spent his winter "vacation" at Valley Forge which is walking distance from my high school and the Zero Gravity toilet for the first space shuttles was designed at G.E. labs on "The Hill", two very distinct claims to fame for my area.

After a very decidedely surburban upbringing in KofP under the watchful eye of my parents, when I became of age (the magical age of 18, old enough to die for your country, vote for idiots for president, but oddly too young to order a beer legally) I ventured off to Morehouse College in Atlanta GA.  Atlanta was very different from KofP which was mostly working class white suburb; Atlanta is a mixture of rednecks, country boys, transplanted New Yorkers, Chicagoans, and Angelenos a jumbled up in a city run largely by black folks.  It was exciting and I learned alot and grew alot.  I stayed in Atlanta after I graduated from Morehouse, I went across town to Emory University School of Medicine.  I had wanted to be a doctor since the age of 5 and I was finally doing it.  So, needless to say, Atlanta produced alot of lasting memories including the oppressive humidity and the red stains from the ubiquitous Georgia clay in all my white and light clothes.  During Med School, for some crazy reason, I was gripped by the idea that I wanted to become a trauma surgeon.  I ended up matching in surgery residency at the now defunct Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center, which is located in between Watts and Compton, possibly the most dangerous slice of real estate in the L.A. Area.

More in the next installment about what I like to call the King Wonder Years.