Good Morning, Mr. President

I missed our manifesto class to go see President Obama speak.  And his speech made me think about a lot of the things we've been talking about.

First of all, he knew how to grab our attention.  I am not Obama's biggest fan, but I can give credit where it's due.  And that man (and/or his speech writer/s) knew his audience.  He talked about Zingermann's and basketball and so many other things that as Wolverines we hold near and dear to us.  And he managed to do this while simultaneously incorporating the political points he wanted to address.  As we continue to write our poems, I think it's important to think about this juxtaposition.  Regardless of whether or not we write with some deeper meaning in mind, there are good ways to bring together lots of ideas in a harmonious way.

Another thing that particularly stood out was the response to this picture.

For anyone who doesn't know that's me.  And that guy in the background wearing the white shirt is Obama.  I thought it was pretty cool I got to see the President speak, so I posted this picture on Facebook.  As I found out, many of friends didn't think it was all that great.  In fact, I got a lot of hate for this picture.  This doesn't seem related to our class, but I think it is (to an extent).  We are all writing about things we care about (I'm assuming).  And just because I care about something, doesn't mean everyone else will.  And it goes the other way, too.  I don't necessarily care about all the same things as the rest of class.  However, that's what makes this world great.  We all have different opinions.  What makes it not so great is when people believe their opinions are fact.  I understand that there are a lot of people that don't like Obama, but their animosity about him was directed at me.  Just because they don't like Obama meant that I couldn't either and I was dumb for having gone to hear him speak.  As we continue to write and reveal ourselves to the class, I'd like for everyone to keep in mind that there's a huge difference between criticism and constructive criticism.  People were mean to me just to be mean.  Because they thought they were right.  Only one person said "Eh...I really don't like Obama.  But it's cool that you got to see him."  I think we've done a great job so far being nice about each other's poems, even if we don't like them or think they could be better.  So keep up the good work!