Barrack Obama and the Return of the Responsible Intellectual

Thank you, God! I am so glad to finally be able to come out to hiding. For almost a decade, I have felt like an outcast, subject to humiliated and ridicule. I have disguised myself in conversations about reality television shows and relative merits of various celebrity pairings. If I pointed out that the portrayal of an Asian woman in the X-men felt, oh, slightly problematic because she had been made to look like a Chinese Dragon Lady, a dreaded figure from the 1930s; I was told I think too much. I took to hiding my books behind copies of People and US, just to fit in. Don't get me wrong, I love Project Runway as much as the next person does. I will pick up a tabloid in the checkout lane to see pictures of Halle Berry's baby because, let's face it, I'm nosy. But I do not and have not made the mistake of believing that it is really that important. I never made the mistake of believing that that should be the content of national discourse or that discourse itself is somehow threatening and sinister. It has always been slightly disturbing this way in which our national discourse has been reduced to babble about celebutantes and how we have begun to accept it. I have grown accustomed to the stupor induced by reading my student thesis. One of which argued that single people shouldn't be allowed to adopt because they are unlovable. If they were lovable, they'd be married. I teach college. I blame myself for adopting the language of the masses. You know what I'm saying though; whatever. And like and like and like and like. Doesn't bother anyone else that Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader is not just a game show but also apparently the only question used to vet the final Republican candidate for vice president of the United States? But that is all over. Finally, finally, the eggheads won and smart people can come out of hiding. Tired of saluting a commander in chief better suited to being president of a fraternity than president of the United States.

What is most striking about Barrack Obama is he is unapologetically intelligent and unabashedly articulate. He conjugates his verbs without shame, using words from an actual dictionary. In addition, he engages other people in discourse as if he weren't afraid of opinions other than his own as if the engagement of other in public and spirited discourse was a means to finding resolution rather than a way of highlighting difference or a threat to his entire belief system. Shocking. This week, the President-elect broke bread with what is considered the conservative brain trust. A move that is unprecedented. He is engaged in dialog with 'the enemy,' rather than shutting his door and assuming that the only answers to the enormous problems that face our country will only come from the left. He has said publicly that this will be an administration that embraces science; yet Obama has also come to reestablish America, as a moral leader, as well.

Discourse, spirited engaged rigorous discourse is fundamental to a thriving democracy. Refusing to speak to an network, interviewer or another person because their opinion may be different than your own or because you are afraid of being asked difficult questions is cowardice. Intellectual in-breeding that leads to defective thinking, strangulation of ideas and reasoning. I mean if our only criteria for our political leaders is that they are like us, what will we get, overweight, debt-laden morally irresponsible good old boys and gals who we can pal around with? I don't want a president I can have a beer with, I want my president to be the smartest guy or gal in the room. Let's talk about what you get when you put an intellectual in office, someone who thinks before he acts but what's more important, let's see what happens when we have an engaged and informed electorate who knows what they believe and more importantly why they believe it so that when someone tries to strip them of their civil liberties, denies them their civil rights they know exactly what it is that they are losing and when they decide to go to war, they know what they are dying for.

It seems to me that we all have a unique opportunity to get re-acquainted with our government, to do more than simply having an opinion but a chance for us to think AND to participate. But calling on Americans to serve their country on MLK Day, President-elect Obama is reminding us that being intelligent is not enough. It isn't enough to simply sit in ivory tower or coffee shops and criticize others for their actions, that it is time that we take actions, ourselves. Certainly, now the time for rhetoric is over. The time for action is now.