been taught to know and prize the rights,
which God[1] has given them, cannot be
enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance
that tyranny begins.” –Ben Franklin
I feel as though our social and political climate have reached a point where I can no longer stay silent. These offenses as “mundane” as Facebook posts and images, as well as recent biases and falsehoods propagated by certain media enterprises to the abhorrently disrespectful outbursts by state representatives in response to various presidential addresses. These statements range from Rep. Wilson’s infamous “you lie,” to images like the following:
These, combined with the completely unfounded ideas of Death Panels, healthcare being about keeping down the white man, as well as defamatory[2] propaganda, which truly has NO bearing on Obama’s ability to govern (such as his possible Islamic leanings, or his being Islamic, or his father being Kenyan), have driven me to write a response to some of these allegations.
In a recent statement, former president Jimmy Carter stated that, “a radical, fringe element’s,” unprecedented attacks against the personhood of the President are driven by racism. This statement brings up several critical issues we are faced with today, especially within the “political” arena (I put political in quotes because I find the vast majority of opinions expressed not only by the public, but also by senators and various members of the media, to be ill informed and incredibly ignorant both in general and of our political system specifically). There have always been, and will always be, attacks against the policies and politics of the person residing in the office of the presidency, as well there should be. “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.” However, the attacks that Pres. Carter refers to are not political attacks, they are personal attacks based upon propaganda spewed by hate mongers such as Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin to name a few. It is bad enough to listen to and agree with such fear mongers, however it takes a much deeper form of bigotry to allow the personal attacks said by such extremists to take root and be internalized (calls for the death of OUR president, legitimate fear of death squads, etc.). Rational people do not form this type of hatred for a person simply for their political ideas, period[3]. If you feel that personal attacks are, in fact, justified, then I demand your reasoning behind their relevance. As to the actual statement made by Pres. Carter; assuming you agree that comments such as asking for the death of Barack Obama or other such statements/threats pointed out in his statement are unwarranted, disrespectful, and harmful to the American people as a whole, are NOT driven by racism, what then, would you propose drives it? A large number of people strongly disliked Pres. Bush’s policies, which actually harmed people[4], and were driven by a belief in an unsubstantiated deity, yet his death was not called for, nor were serious attacks made on his person, only his impeachment was requested (which I opposed).
Secondly, to the absurd and truly ignorant claim that Obama is not a US citizen and therefore not eligible to be the president on the United States of America: Barack Hussain Obama IS a United States Citizen regardless of where he was born or who is father was! According to Title 8 of the US Code § 1409 paragraph (c), because his mother was a US Citizen, he is, by blood a US citizen. Now for all of you Fox “News” listeners, there has been a bit on controversy over the wording and the intent of the requirements for President. The wording does not define whether “naturally born” refers to jus soli or jus sanguinis this is, born on soil vs. born to parents. In a bipartisan legal review of JOHN MCCAIN (yes that’s right all you Republicans, McCain was born in Panama) it was found that either form of birthright is eligible to hold the office of the presidency. Get out of your mud slinging gutter and talk about something intelligent.
Point three. Read the following quote and tell me if you agree that this is an idea of America as a whole. “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement... It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” How many of you agree with this? I would bet a very large number! Another phrasing of an ideal that I consider to be the American Dream is, “a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.” How do you feel about this definition of the American dream? It sounds pretty good to me. Making sure we all get what we earn and what we deserve based upon what we put in, while simultaneously making sure we all get an equal and fair start. How do you feel about institutions like our Law Enforcement services? Fire fighters? Public education? If you like the last quote, or any of these three services, then I’m sorry, but you like socialism in one of it’s many forms. Unfortunately too many Americans would rather sit by and parrot what they hear the demagogues say than research what these terms and theories actually mean and how they are implemented in our everyday lives. In the famous words of Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” and this intentional ignorance of our populous shames me and allows the demagogues control whose precedent is only been superseded by that of the McCarthy era. I have been witness to multiple individuals screaming, fear-filled calls of, “ Keep Government out of my/our Medicare!” Has our culture really become this shallow, this uninformed? Keep your socialist agenda out of my socialist health-care? That is what you are yelling about. Quit picketing; quit listening to Rush Limbaugh and start thinking for yourself. Socialism, like capitalism is not inherently a bad thing, or a good thing. It is a tool and it has its place, like guns, biotechnology and nuclear power, we don’t need to arm our police officers with hand-held nuclear weapons in order for them to protect themselves or us. We don’t need to run in fear every time someone says socialism. We need to learn what these ideas entail and learn that all things have a place and a use.
Finally, images, comments and statements made out of ignorance do nothing to further your point. Often times they only go to show that you, yourself, do not understand what you are saying. To equate our duly elected, legal president to Hitler[5], or the Joker (of Batman infamy) is not only offensive, but goes to show you truly have no understanding of the issues at hand, and are simply responding out of fear to what someone in “authority” is telling you. I beg you to consider what you are saying when you put up and image or post a status update on your Facebook. You may feel you are asserting your first amendment rights to free speech (and you are), however another more poignant phrase comes to mind, “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
[1] I’m sorry bible-thumpers, this is not the Judeo-Christian god, but a Deist god, a god of science. Our country was NOT founded on Christianity as many of you would like to think. I would be more then happy to prove it to you if you really want me to, and you trust books written on the subject, but scholars who are devoted to the subject.
[2] This is truly sad to me that these can even be considered as defamatory. A man’s religion, or heritage, especially one of peace that does not in any apparent way influence his politics, can be held against him.
[3] There are possible exceptions to this; the most common opposition would be that of Hitler. However, Hitler’s political views were not the only influencing factors to the Final Solution. In fact, the political ideology behind this final solution should not require one’s hatred, rather the ruthless and brutal subjugation and removal of autonomy of entire groups of people for no reason but their birthright should be the only factor motivating this “hatred.”
[4] State sanctioned rough interrogation, no child left behind, HUGELY decreased world image, abstinence-only sex education, restrictions on stem cell research, failure to act in a responsible manner with regards to environmental problems, common and repeated refusal to acknowledge proven scientific data in a multitude of fields, just to name a few.
[5] I do understand that Hitler was, in fact, also duly elected, however this is where the allegory ends.
