Without using the typical cliches, I’d like to make aon obersavation on what happened yesterday.  Am I proud of my country, of course.  Am I proud that we elected Barack Obama, yes, of course.  But I cannot get over the gigantic camel that the entire nation is trying to pass through a needle’s eye.

I am confused why everyone is so excited about Barack Obama being elected.  If my memory serves me correctly, the United States is VERY late in the game to elect a black man as president.  Looking at many countries around the world, they have elected presidents of different ethnicities AND sexes.  I do not completely agree with President-Elect Obama’s political opinions, but I am respectful of the office and the person holding it. However, it’s about time that the US elected someone OTHER than a white man as their president.

I love my country, but we should have already had a person of color in the office.  We should have already had a female president.  What excites me so much about yesterday’s election was the next step that we, as a nation, are taking to overcome the race and sex boundary in the Oval Office.  Now we have our first “African American” president, and soon, we will have our first female president.  And then, our first Mexican-American, and so on, and so on…

I was excited to hear Obama’s words last night.  I want to believe that he will be a catalyst for unity and change.  Barack can be a conduit for bringing this country together.  Perhaps, with Obama as our president, we can progress from only seeing one’s ethnicity to seeing their value as a person and a leader.  My prayer for the country, and for Obama’s legacy, is that we no longer call each other by their hyphenated label, or gender, but as only Americans.

When I travel, I often listen to Books-On-Audio.  And my recent visit to Florida was no different.  I got a chance to listen to  Steel Trapp: The Challenge, by Ridley Pearson.  Pearson has written one of my favorite fiction books, The Kingdom Keepers, a great story about Walt Disney World.  And as many of my friends know, I am a Disney fan.  You should pick The Kingdom Keepers up as well.

Ridley Pearson writes kids books.  It’s written for younger audiences and it’s refreshing for someone like me, who listens to, and reads, a lot of adult fiction like James Patterson and Stephen King.  In Steel Trapp: Challenge, we are introduced to Steven “Steel” Trapp, a 14 year-old boy who has a photographic memory.   Steel, his mom, and dog, Cairo are off to Washington, DC, for a science competition. There he becomes involved in a situation that suggests a terrorist plot, but is much more intricate.

This is a great thiller that is suitable for younger audiences, and is also richly enjoyable for adults!