Let us stop dancing around the truth for a minute and address the naked facts: There are certain people in this country who will never, ever, accept the notion of Barack Obama as the legally elected president of these not-so-United States.
They howl in agreement when mouth breathers like Rush Limbaugh suggest the president may not have been born in this country, and gleefully parrot partisan hacks Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, who shamelessly float the notion that Obama may be a radical Islamic sympathizer who secretly hates all white people - including, presumably, half the man’s own family.
Nothing he does will ever be good enough, and they highly resent his nationwide (and worldwide) popularity. His recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize, which he himself questions as appropriate, is taken as a deliberate attempt to lionize a president who has not yet earned the accolades pouring into the White House.
As an example, take the recent story originating just across the river in Burlington County, New Jersey.
It seems that during a school assembly way back on March 23, second graders of the B. Bernice Young Elementary School were videotaped singing a couple of tunes they had learned a month earlier, during Black History Month. While other classes sang songs commemorating U.S. presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, one class sang their songs about the current officeholder.
The songs, whose lyrics were adapted to praise the life and accomplishments of Barack Obama, created an Internet sensation, which grew into a national firestorm more than six months later. Here is a sample of the heresy:
“Barack Hussein Obama / He said that all must lend a hand / To make this country strong again.”
Horrified beyond consolation, the right wing sprang into action half a year late. Conservative loudmouth Limbaugh went apoplectic. Fox News’ resident maniac Beck launched into his signature act: crying real tears on-air while braying like a wounded mule about the socialist indoctrination of innocent schoolchildren.
The result was that just last Monday about 70 wing nuts, representing every element of the lunatic fringe from the appropriately-named Teabaggers to Beck’s certifiably mad 9/12 group, marched in protest at the school, carrying signs that read, “Education not indoctrination” and "Free children, free minds.”
You can choose, if you like, to buy the protesters’ story that they are simply good government and education advocates, only interested in the intellectual welfare of the children. I choose rather to believe they’re a bunch of fanatical, frothing-at-the-mouth crackpots who lack the integrity to stand behind their own racial hatred.
They remind me of the membership of the Valley Club who created a stir this summer by denying swimming privileges to a group of summer campers who happened to be the wrong color.
“It has nothing to do with racism,” they reply huffily, all the while angrily questioning the presence of ‘those people’ in places they clearly don’t belong. Places like a previously all-white swim club, and a previously all-White House.
What burns me most, I’ve decided, is not even the dangerous fanatics themselves, but the white folks who know their true motives and intentions but choose to remain silent.
Anxious to remove the stain of racism and discrimination from the nation’s consciousness, they willingly accept the weak “It has nothing to do with racism” defense at face value, knowing in their hearts that it has everything to do with racism.
That is not to say that every white person who disagrees with the president is a racist. There are legitimate differences of opinion regarding Obama’s policies on health care reform, economic recovery, and the allocation of our military, just to name a few. The loyal opposition should feel free to express their opinions and suggestions on these important issues without fear of being branded racist for simply bringing up the subject.
But those aren’t the people we’re talking about here. We’re talking about those with a far deeper (dare we say darker?) underlying principle: ’those people’ should know their place.
I further understand the argument that former president George W. Bush didn’t exactly get a free ride from his detractors.
However, as one of those detractors, I’m more than willing to stand behind my animosity toward the White House during the Bush years, and I further admit that my dislike for the former president is predicated on two basic factors which are strictly my own opinion: he stole the office, and he’s stupid.
I challenge the 9/12ers and the Teabaggers to admit the real reasons for their hatred of Barack Obama.
