Browsing: President

November 6. The big day is here – the day you get to write the future narrative of this country.

If you happen to be an American citizen, please do go out and vote. It’s no time for apathy. Hurricane Sandy may have exhausted you, recent events exasperated you but today you’ve got to pick yourself up and get to a polling station.
I know the last week has not been easy – my home is still without power and heat, and I know thousands are in the same situation with the cold weather coming on. Nevertheless, I too am headed back home from Manhattan, driving 3o miles to cast my vote at a nearby school where my polling station is located.
Never has one day been so important in setting the course of how life pans out for our families, for future generations.

“I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen,” wrote President Barack Obama to his supporters on the day after his stunning victory.
“You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward.”

Yes, for the hard-pressed supporters who had hoped against hope that Obama would get another four years to complete the architecture of their dreams, it is morning in America. Not a golden sunlit surreal morning but morning nevertheless, tinged with the chilly reality of the world as it is. This victory is a remarkable coming together of different people and races, reflective of the changing face of the nation, the browning of America.

Guess what, Lassi with Lavina is being followed on Twitter by someone from the White House!

No, not the President, not even the First Lady. Not even the First Children but by the First Dog, Bo Diddley Obama! Of course, I wasn’t aware that dogs could read or keyboard, much less get on to Twitter. But then again, you have to remember it’s the Obama dog and he probably has a great IQ to match the rest of the Obamas.

When Bhairavi Desai met President Barack Obama on the receiving line at the Administration’s first State Dinner at the White House, she introduced herself as the director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Obama smiled his high voltage smile and bending down, confided: “I was an organizer too!”

“It was such a thrill to hear him say that – it was such a nice endorsement of my profession,” recalls Desai, who is a fearless advocate for the rights of New York cabbies. She and co-founder Javaid Tariq were both guests at the glittering dinner with celebs and politicos, a party which possibly America’s entire population wanted to attend but to which only 320 guests were invited, not counting the gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi.