President Barack Obama Seen Biking on Lobsterville Beach in Aquinnah Without a Helmet

Here we go again. The Obamas are under the microscope. President Barack Obama was spotted biking on Lobsterville Beach in Aquinnah and he was the only one without a helmet. Also riding with the Obamas were Konrad Ng, the president's brother-in-law, his daughter Suhaila, family friend Eric Whitaker, and a few other unidentified children.

Would you like the president to wear a helmet? Personally, I don't think this is a big deal, but since President George W. Bush was held to such high standards and was a paragon of virtue, then I guess we should expect no less from President Obama. Of course, I am being sarcastic.

Anti-War Protester Cindy Sheehan Sets Sights on President Barack Obama, Stages Protest at Media Center on Martha's Vineyard

She's baaaaacck! Cindy Sheehan, that is. You will recall that she spent weeks dogging George W. Bush's presidential vacations, now the anti-war protester is now trying to make life uncomfortable for President Barack Obama on his Martha's Vineyard vacation. Sheehan pitched a peace camp near Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch and she became a symbol of the anti-war movement after her son Casey died in action in Iraq. I found her to be annoying, but she had a point and I give her some credit for popping up again on the other side of the aisle.

Sheehan and a band of anti-war protesters turned up Thursday outside the media center used by journalists covering Obama's vacation on the well-heeled east coast resort island of Martha's Vineyard. "The reason I am here is because ... even though the facade has changed in Washington D.C., the policies are still the same," Sheehan told a handful of journalists, against a backdrop of her "Camp Casey" banner.

She also told peace activists to wake up and protest Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan and complained that despite the president's anti-war stance, US troops remained in Iraq. Gee, I didn't think he could just snap a finger and bring the troops home. Any withdrawal from this ill-advised and unfounded war will take months. I will give her credit for recognizing that though then-candidate Barack Obama said he would bring the troops home, now as President, his hands are tied and it is clear that there is still no exit strategy to end this war.

"Ghetto Girls Rock" T-Shirts Hit the Market as First Lady Michelle Obama and Family Vacation on Martha's Vineyard

Now that First Lady Michelle Obama and her family are vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, the whole dust-up about Mrs. Obama being a "ghetto girl" who wasn't fit for this exclusive community is back on the front burner. New York magazine published the article, written by veteran journalist Touré, titled "Black and White on Martha's Vineyard." In this tribute to the affluent Black community called Oak Bluffs in the popular New England vacation spot, Touré quoted an anonymous member (a coward is more like it) of Black high society in Martha's Vineyard saying, "[Michelle Obama] is basically a ghetto girl. Now comes an article written by Belva Davis in the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions a new t-shirt that touts being a "ghetto girl."

My friend Abigail McGrath sent me this graphic of a t-shirt she expects to sell a ton of over the next week. Frankly, I didn't know what to make of it. From her press release:

The very idea of confusing "ghetto" with negativity rather than historical disenfranchisement is wrong and offensive, says Vineyard resident Abigail McGrath: " Folks are confusing cash with class."

Only on the most poorly informed television networks and fictionalized TV series is "ghetto" equated with gum-chewing, finger-snapping air heads and gun-toting thugs.

So Ms. McGrath has designed a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Ghetto Girls Rock!!!," listing on it the names of 48 famous women who came from "the ghetto" and made the world a better place. Women such as Mother Theresa, Mother Hale, and Fannie Lou Hamer grace the shirt with dignity and aplomb. Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Personally I believe that the term "ghetto girl" has negative connotations and it is nothing to celebrate. I scarcely think that Mother Theresa, Mother Hale, Fannie Lou Hamer, Golda Meir, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Bella Azbug, Anita Hill, Sonia Sotomayor and all the other women mentioned, would consider themselves "ghetto girls." Though the intent of the t-shirt is to show others that there are many great women of modest means who have accomplished a great deal in life, it can also be perceived as another ploy to sell t-shirts and make money. We must strive to dispel such negative stereotypes, not embrace them for monetary gain. Michelle Obama deserves the same level of respect afforded to all our first ladies -- Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Roslyn Carter, to name a few.

Photo credit:  "Ghetto Girls" t-shirt design, by Abigail McGrath (San Francisco Chronicle)