barack obama and my hair

This past wednesday I cut my hair. It'd been nearly eleventh months without a hair cut and my blond locks were falling well below my shoulders. My hair was becoming part of my identity. It was a conversation starter with friends and a point of friendly teasing with others. I'd genially joke about how I was a hippie.

Now it's gone and I miss it. I was reluctant to shear it all off. I'd just planned to clean it up and keep it long, but when I sat in the barber's swivel chair I decided I'd push my limit. Not only is it gone, but it's short. Change is good I figured; it's good to go beyond your comfort zone; it's good to experience something new.

But change is tough. I miss my hair. I miss how an against-the-grain hairstyle differentiated me from others. My hair was not my entire identity, but it made up at least a large part of my superficial identity. I think that people I saw on the street or at work would see my hair and register the thought, "long hair," and immediately frame their interactions and their reading of me on this superficial appearance.

If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, substantial change will come. Neoconservative ideology will be put wayside. More and more foreign policy will be pursued multilaterally, with the aid of our allies, and through international institutions like the UN. The US will begin to realize the importance of foreign legitimacy. We will no longer see legitimacy from our gut, but now from our friends.

At home the state will grow. There will be a great deal of legislative reform and social spending. We've already partially-nationalized parts of the banking industry, and government intervention will continue. We'll tax the rich more, and try to aid homeowners that have been duped by malicious mortgages. We'll establish a healthcare system that treats healthcare as a fundamental human right for all.

I believe that these changes in foreign and domestic policy will be great. Sure, hiccups will occur especially with our economy in recession and the national debt growing. But these changes are new, exciting, and promising.

Nonetheless, change is still scary and change still hurts. Just as I'm grappling with how to act with my new short-haired identity, the US will have to get used to its new identity. If Barack Obama is our president, on top of the substantive change he will bring, he will also bring a fundamental change to American identity. We will have elected a minority to lead a nation that has a reputation for exterminating Native Americans, sicking dogs on blacks seeking equal rights in the 60s, pursuing imperialistic goals throughout the world, and most recently building a wall to keep Mexicans and Central Americans out. Our identity--for ourselves to look at, and for the world to see--will be different. For a nation that has grown used to (and sick of) Bush's neoconservative foreign policy, and the self-legitimizing, go-at-it-your-own frontier mentality with our allies, this will take time to get used to.

Now that I've cut my hair it feels great; I don't have to brush strands out of my eyes every two seconds or wait a half hour for my hair to dry. But I'm still grappling with its newness. This is something that people throughout the United States, as well as people throughout the world, must get used to.