On last weeks Valentine's Day President Obama hosted a so-called digital 'Fireside Hangout' in which he spoke with #1 New York bestseller John Green. John Green asked the president to choose a name for his unborn baby and Obama wisely said: "I leave the naming up to you, but don't forget to tell the baby that he or she should not forget to be awesome."
John Green was clearly surprised and honored by this advice and laughed out loud, because 'Don't Forget To Be Awesome' is the central theme of his famous book A Fault In Our Stars. John and his vlogbrother Hank Green created a fast growing community around 'Don't Forget To Be Awesome,' produced this funny rap, and since this endorsement by Obama last week it is really becoming a tremendous hype. On Twitter each minute tens of tweets show up with #DFTBA and here you can read that even notorious Obama haters explain that his performance during the Fireside Hangout finally converted them into fans: "There's a nerd fighter in the White House!"
Just some hours prior to the hangout the U.S. President already made himself even more popular amongst all lovers of progressive policies in the whole world thanks to his State of the Union. Generally I liked the speech, but several times I thought, please don't forget to be awesome. Not only to walk your talk, but also because the world needs strong, visionary, awesome leadership.
Let's for example have a close look at Obama's ambition regarding the nuclear weaponry. He aims to reduce a third of all the nuclear weaponry. This may sound like a substantial step, but after at least two years of politics and the Non Proliferation Treaty Conference to be held in 2015, the maximum result will probably turn out to be a reduction of 10 or 20 percent, exactly the amount of weapons that is -- by then -- too old to maintain. Why in earths name (literally) would we not strive for a total and global zero of this devastating weaponry? Why isn't Obama supporting the call of the new youth based peace initiative MasterPeace (already active in over 30 countries) and its partner Mayors for Peace with over 5,500 mayors who signed for the 2020vision: no nuclear weapons by 2020. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently supported this vision wholeheartedly and it would really be awesome if President Obama would soon follow!
The pure existence of nuclear weapons causes huge risks. Tensions can rise quickly in each and every region and especially in the Middle East. Sooner or later a political leader could make the mistake to use his nuclear weapons in a last attempt to not lose his power. On top of this, nuclear weapons can fall in the wrong hands, partly because the 'good' hands in one year can turn out to be the wrong hands one year later (did I hear you say 'Assad'?). And last but not least the maintenance of the two-third Obama seems to accept will still cost the world around six hundred billion U.S. Dollars till 2020. Six hundred billion, that's enough to solve the financial crises and bring food and education to the poorest regions. Wouldn't that be awesome?!