Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha

I find it interesting that it hasn’t even been a month since the Obama’s have been in office and the major corporations are already trying to make bank off of their historic achievement. Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia are dolls created by Ty, the makers of beanie babies. They came out right before the inauguration. The company has denied that they are actually based off of the children of President Barack Obama. Alan Duke wrote an article for CNN, Ty denies Obama girls inspired Sweet Sasha, Marvelous Malia. The press secretary for Michelle Obama, Katie McCormick Lelyveld said, “"We feel it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes,” (Duke).

I feel like this coincides with our discussion in class last week on sacred and profane objects. The dolls have gone from being seemingly meaningless dolls to important historic and attention oriented dolls. If the Obama’s weren’t in office we would not have even heard of these dolls. It is just too much of a coincidence that the two dolls, the only African American dolls in their collection for 30, would have the same names as the President’s daughters. The company is making profit off of the innocence of two young children who have been thrown into the spotlight.

If it was a contest that had won a few lucky kids the opportunity to have dolls created for them this would be a totally different story. Michelle Obama may have even signed off a consent form to have the dolls made if Ty had asked. In many cases this could have been a kind of flattery for the family but Ty never consulted with the White House and has consistently denied that the dolls were inspired by Sasha and Malia Obama."Information concerning the development of our products and how we come up with names, how we select them, how we trademark -- that's considered as proprietary. I can't go any further with that question. Sasha and Malia are beautiful names" that "worked very well with the dolls we were making," said Senior Vice President of Sales for Ty, Tania Lundeen (Duke).


Duke, Alan. "Ty denies Obama girls inspired Sweet Sasha, Marvelous Malia - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 23 Jan. 2009.
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Religion in Washington

These last weeks we have focused primarily on the inauguration and the secular and sacred symbolism therein. From Rev. Rick Warren’s invocation to Lincoln’s bible, the Christian symbols and components of the inauguration were clear and present. We know that the United States is a nation founded on Christian ideals, but how can we situate these images in an ever diversifying population? There is no doubt that religion plays a significant role in America today and is therefore a driving political influence, but what role does religion have in Government? No doubt many Christian Americans were thrilled to hear Rev. Rick Warren proclaim Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior during his invocation. At the same time no doubt many non-Christians were squirming in their seats. Herein lays the inherent problem with religion in government. There are too many beliefs, too many faiths, and too many ideals to make everyone happy all the time. The First Amendment to the Constitution gives us the idea of separation of church and state by mandating that no law can be passed to respect an established religion nor to prohibit the free exercise of religion. The Constitution never specifies the role religion could or could not play in Washington beyond that.

I personally feel that the significance of the Christian presence at the inauguration comes directly from President Obama’s personal Christian beliefs. Every President of the United States so far has been Christian so there is a tradition of swearing on a Bible. Because of the overwhelming political influence held by Christian voters across the nation, it is unlikely that a non-Christian will be elected any time soon. When it does happen however, it only seems appropriate that religious symbols relevant and sacred to that President will used.

Many moderate Americans may not even have noticed the Christian presence at the inauguration, or at least glazed right over it. As Colleen McDannell describes in Material Christianity, there is a scrambling of the sacred and the profane. Traditionally sacred objects are becoming utilitarian. The Bible, a sacred Christian text, has become the book people swear on. From witnesses in a court room to the president of the United States, when you swear something you do it on a bible. Why? Well, because that is what they always do in the movies. As with any tradition, sacred or secular, the longer its history, the more likely people are to forget why it is done at all.

The voting populace is also a source of religious strife. With radical non-believers screaming “God is a lie!” and radical Christians screaming “Convert the heathens!” we find ourselves in a deadlock with little room for progress. Each side is convinced that it is right and that its way of knowing is the only way. Before his election, Barack Obama spoke about the role of religion in America as well as expressing a need for faiths to coexist and even work together. Below is this clip –I apologize for the poor quality.

In this short piece, I feel like President Obama very accurately describes the role that religion must play in politics. There is no doubt that religion shapes political views, but when creating policy we must, as Obama says, persuade based on a common reality. We must accept that different people hold different beliefs and different ideals, but we are fundamentally all human first. In this way we can come together to establish an effective government.

Week of January 27, symbolism

    The week prior to the week of January 27 we all saw the inauguration as a class on Tuesday, and discussed the many forms of symbolism that we found throughout the ceremony. we found there were multiple views on the symbolism behind Lincolns bible. Some feel that it is strictly religious and it was due to that the bible is Obama's holy book. Others say that the symbolism is behind the ownership of the bible itself. Being that it is Lincoln's bible makes it special or sacred, even if not in a religious way,because Lincoln was president at the time of the United States Civil war. He is also the president that passed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves in the US and started the movement to even greater equality in our Nation. The fact that really makes our forty fourth president of the USA special is that he is the first African American president. This is where the connection between the bible belonging to Lincoln and Obama as president such a strong symbol.Personally I believe that the fact that it was Lincolns bible that was used did have a significant impact and sacred meaning to it, however I can also believe the other side to a certain degree.

    Below is a Video clip found on NTVKenya's YouTube.com page that shows some of the reactions of people feeling optimistic and hopeful now that we have an African American president in office now. It touches on the link between Obama as the first African American president and how it the bible of the man who began the movement to free the slaves many years ago. This would have never seemed possible and now as specified in the clip, "its a dream come true". If I was Obama at that moment he was being sworn into office I would have been attributing my accomplishment to many different people but thinking of Martin Luther King additionally.

    


    Other forms of symbolism that is not depicted as much in the video include how diverse things were on that day and are almost foreshadowed for the future. The cameras going over the crowd showed a wide range of nationalities as well as the special musical performance was performed by the best of each musical instrument class coincidentally all of a different nationality. Diversity I can see becoming more accepted and promoted in America now that we can see it is in effect already.

    We did a reading that links to the irony that we use Lincoln's bible and Obama is being sworn in as the first African American president. This reading was found in "Material Christianity" by Colleen McDannell. In Chapter one there is a section on material culture. The simple definition of material culture is something that tells about someone in someway or adds a certain feeling to an environment. This links to Lincoln's bible being used to inaugurate president Obama into office. I believe many people think more strongly about the idea behind the situation than about the inauguration itself. Change is good and to finally have an African American president as president will be a change from our prior forty three presidents of the United States of America.


    One thing that we can use to transition to the reading we have done for this class is to think about this quote in regards to the importance of Lincolns bible as a symbol and recurring theme last week. "Material Christianity" we see "In spite of the difficulty of defining "religion," scholars and theologians frequently accept a simple division between the sacred and the profane. They also see an evolutionary, modernizing trend that has caused Western societies to become increasingly secular."(4). It then goes on to talk about how material Christianity how Americans don't see the scrambling change but it is occurring.
    Are we as Americans really taking the sacred from material Christianity or are we leaving it as sacred? If we are maybe the fact that it was Lincoln's bible is more significant than it seems.