Today, there are going to be a lot of people talking about the last 100 Days in American history. As the president is compared today to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s iconic “100 Day” goal, and ever president’s since then, I’m really thinking we should be looking more forward.

Back in the FDR days, the president could just demand vast policy changes and implementation like a 16-year-old handing out fliers for a Times Square pizza joint for $5.15 an hour. Our federal government was so innocuous — really, it was Roosevelt who made it such a big, regulatory part of our lives in the 1930s/40s in the first place.

Anyway, so yeah, Obama has accomplished a pretty good amount of stuff in the past three months, though I think the economy is still faaaaaar from being repaired. But fortunately so far he’s repealed the global gag rule, signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act, stared some pirates down and won, thawed tensions with a lot of global frenemies, pushed that gigantic bailout/stimulus package through, unveiled some seriously depressing Bush-era torture memos, and got a dog. Hell, he’s even swayed a Republican to switch sides — how’s that for day 99?!

But looking at what we have to achieve, it looks like the goals for the U.S. really is just to get the entire country on the same level on the most pressing issues in all matters domestic. Over the next few days, I’m going to take a look at issues both domestic and foreign and what we should tackle by Labor Day.

Any suggestions? Feel free to comment or hit me up at michelle {at} urbanesse.com. Guest posts are always welcome.

A simple, purdy, 8-minute history of our wonderful series of tubes.

President Obama said something really interesting in a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, aside from the fact that bringing Tom Daschle on board was a mistake:

You know, when I think about Abraham Lincoln, what I’m struck by is the fact that he constantly learned on the job. He got better. You know, he wasn’t defensive. He wasn’t arrogant about his tasks. He was very systematic in saying, ‘I’m going to master the job, and I understand it’s going to take some time.’ But in his case, obviously, the Civil War was the central issue, and he spent a lot of time learning about military matters, even though that wasn’t his area of experience. Right now I’m learning an awful lot about the economy. I’m not a trained economist, but I’m spending a lot of time thinking about that so that I can make the very best decisions possible for the American people.”

I have a feeling that he said that partially to cover his ass, but he’s been saying that some parts of his early presidency will have to be written off as a “lesson learned.” This was to be expected, as it is for any president, really. And Civil War? Yeah that’s not only the interpretation of the modern day economy, but also the “War on Terror,” which we are no longer calling the “War on Terror.” Hey, a little progress goes a long way.

I remember learning in Poli Sci about the different temperaments of the presidents. One was the submissive attitude/ active action president, of which Lincoln was emblematic. He was an internal thinker, a worrier on the inside, but resilient on the outside. He acted cautiously, but effectively. I have a feeling that’s what we’re going to see over the next few years…a sharp contrast to the erratic, hard-lined actions and thought process we’ve lived through previously.

There’s no doubt that history was made on Tuesday. Check out these front pages from newspapers across the country. They are indeed the first draft of history.

Did you buy the paper on Wednesday? I got the crappy paper that no one reads around here, but,  hey, I got it.

photo by furryscaly

So I’m embarking on a new project inspired by reading a memoir by A.M. Homes, The Mistress’s Daughter. It was a fantastic memoir about a woman who meets her biological parents (who are have their weird issues) which eventually prompts her to research the people in her blood family. It’s a short read with an interesting point of view; I recommend it, if you’re into memoir and non-frilly writing.

I read that book in December 2007, and on Christmas Eve, I told my dad that I was interested in researching our family roots. On my mom’s side, we pretty much know the family history since my great grandmother is still cognizant at 92, and can tell us stories to the best of her memory. Also, most of our family lives in New York City, still, so it’s easy to get the family together and so on. And someone in our family traced our pre-slavery roots back to Senegal, where I plan to go sometime in the next few years.

But my dad’s family history is interesting to me, mainly because we have Caribbean immigrants (my great grandmother supposedly came through Ellis Island), one of my great uncles was light enough to pass for white and ended up abandoning our family, and my other great uncle probably has babies all over the world (those Isaacs men are a good looking bunch hehe). I’ve never met my dad’s dad, who was born in Puerto Rico, and made bathtup rum as a child. He likely returned to P.R. to die — he and Nana divorced when my dad was a kid, so no one is really sure.

I’m a journalist, but this may end up being one of the most investigative projects I take on in my immediate future. This may also warrant a trip to the Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico, or Barbados (though it may be as simple as going to Brooklyn City Hall for an afternoon when I go back east to visit). I’m curious to know if any of you have done any family tree research? Did anyone have a particularly difficult time finding information? Has anyone had to leave the country do do some digging? What am I getting myself into?