Dear America.

(More like "Dear Ignorant Portion of the U.S. Population." But you know.)

Almost a year ago, we had a presidential election. People came out and voted, the votes were tallied, and Barack Obama received the majority according to the electoral college. In January, he was inaugurated, and he's served as President for the past nine months. He hasn't started another unnecessary war, created a national youth group named after himself, or sent the police to kill racially impure citizens of our country. So, why do you keep acting like he is?

I've seen President Obama compared to Hitler in many different ways, and I don't understand this at all. Most who claim this argue that he's asking the whole country/world to worship him, when he in fact is simply doing his job. Those who write songs about him (sorry for posting a Fox News clip here), claim he should stay president forever, and praise him are doing it because they like him, plain and simple. He's not asking people to worship him, he's just promoting the changes he talked about in his campaign and people like what he's doing. I know, especially for those who are my age or younger, it's hard to remember a time when our president wasn't a complete moron. It may seem strange to many of you that we could actually elect a president who can present himself with intelligence and be liked by other countries, but it's happening again.

I also think that many people are turning President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize into something larger than it is. Not to say that a Nobel Prize isn't a big deal, but they award them every year, and for many different reasons. He actually seemed a bit confused when he was awarded the prize, along with a lot of Americans. ("To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve it.") However, I feel we need to look at this from a European (Norwegian, specifically) perspective, because that's the perspective the committee had. While President Bush was in office, most of Europe looked down upon the United States. Our president and vice president were both children of big corporations, which made us a more strongly capitalistic nation than when President Clinton was in office. Though capitalism is alive, kicking, and socially acceptable here, it's not that way in Europe, or at least not to that extent. To Europeans, the switch from President's Bush's big oil-promoting capitalism to President Obama's focus on the working class was quite a contrast. Obama has also done a lot of promoting peace in the Middle East, advocating for women's rights, and raising the minimum wage, among other things. From a European perspective, I can definitely see how the Bush to Obama transition makes the U.S. a much more peaceful player in international affairs, and would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on that.

Essentially: stop drinking Haterade for breakfast and look at the facts. You'll be surprised at how much of what you hear from the media/pop culture is actually false, especially when it comes to politics.

Peace,

Renée