The institution of the “Barack Obama Day” in Illinois is beyond bizarre. I was born and grew up in a totalitarian state, and naming shit after people, especially people who are still alive, creeps me out. I can see naming a street where an artist lived it was born after them. But only after they pass away and stay passed away for a while. There’s no way of knowing whether the artist’s work will survive the rest of time otherwise.
If we are talking about a historic figure of once-in-generations proportions, like Martin Luther King Jr for instance, I can see it but again, only after they died, and it’s got to be a tragic, violent death, too.
Any naming after people outside of these conventions smacks of personality worship and is unhealthy. I love Obama but eww to Obama Day.
Clarissa's Blog 
The original bill proposed in the Illinois legislature would have made “Barack Obama Day” a legal state holiday, requiring that public schools and state government offices be closed.
That version failed to pass, so it’s only a “commemorative” holiday. School kids and state workers don’t get the day off.
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The institution of the “Barack Obama Day” in Illinois is beyond bizarre.
He’s from Illinois and came up in politics through Illinois. He is one of three presidents who had Illinois as their home state (the others are Lincoln & Grant.)
Though, I’m surprised Hawaii didn’t beat them to it, because that’s where he had the real ‘native-son’ political advantage and no other President has any connection to Hawaii by birth or political career.
If we are talking about a historic figure of once-in-generations proportions
Obama was the first non-white POTUS. I would hope that he would not be once in a generation for that reason.
Certainly he came in with several people already disposed to anoint him (what was that Nobel Peace Prize?) and the spectacle we have as POTUS is not helping matters. “I miss Obama! He spoke in complete sentences and knew what a paragraph was and babies liked him, etc” sometimes pops up on my feed.
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The only U.S. president actually born in Illinois was Ronald Reagan.
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True…Reagan is more closely associated with California though.
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I think we can all agree now and did agree back then that the award of the Nobel to Obama was beyond ridiculous.
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NO, NO, NO, THIS IS A TREMENDOUS LIE! OBAMA IS AN ISLAMIST FROM KENYA, BELIEVE ME!
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