In her article, “How far has the South really come? Too few here celebrate inauguration,” Lucy Cheseldine lamented the fact that The University of Alabama did not celebrate President Obama’s second inauguration to her liking.

Apparently Miss Cheseldine finds another term under President Obama, who was raised mainly by his white grandparents and attended Harvard Law School, to be not only synonymous with the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement, but also a dream come true for Martin Luther King Jr.

Spare me the rhetoric about President Obama’s messianic qualities and his voice being one of “many years of history”; I think judging President Obama based on his actions in office is much more valuable than judging him based on his race.

I don’t find it necessary to worship an elitist leader who tirelessly pits classes and races against each other; rather, I chose to mourn on the day of President Obama’s second inauguration. Many of us chose not to celebrate a second term under President Obama because of his disastrous first term, during which he targeted Christian business owners, like David Green of Hobby Lobby, forcing them to violate their religious views to fund other people’s birth control and abortifacient drugs.

We chose not to celebrate a President who signed a government takeover of healthcare that will force healthy, young people to purchase expensive insurance policies that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will cost nearly $6,000 per year; we require, on average, only $854 in healthcare services each year, as 200 healthcare economists pointed out in their amicus brief during the 2012 Supreme Court case.

During his first term and re-election campaign, President Obama shamelessly promoted Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby, scorning anyone who doesn’t think abortion is healthcare and fighting to expand taxpayer-funded abortions under Obamacare’s covert abortion premiums.

Another reason I don’t celebrate President Obama’s continuing reign is the fast and furious scandal that rendered United States border patrol agent Brian Terry dead via a gun the Obama administration gave Mexican drug cartels and the incident’s disgraceful cover-up. Add to the list the Obama administration’s carelessness in preventing and responding to the terrorist attack that killed American ambassador Christopher Stevens last year, and you’ve got another reason why I wore black on Jan. 21.

If Miss Cheseldine observed a Northeastern college campus on former President George W. Bush’s second inauguration, she no doubt would find a similar number of dismayed, depressed young Americans. And those Americans were not somehow less patriotic than the conservatives who were celebrating. It is our duty to be loyal to our country, not our government.

Claire Chretien is a sophomore majoring in American studies.

Leading in today’s Crimson White:

[Opinion] The South needs to have open conversations about race to escape its history 

[Opinion] National news needs to stick with facts in order to truly benefit viewers

[Opinion] Students are the real bosses of the Student Government Association