I just have to air my feelings on this issue of President Obama's birth certificate. I am totally outraged by the whole affair.
How is it possible for the President of the United States to be treated in such a disrespectful and ignorant manner. If one cannot respect the man himself the very least they could do is respect the office.
This man has been hounded about his birth certificate for 2 1/2 years. He never could have become President if there was any question about his birthplace. He produced a short form birth certificate prior to being elected. He was still hounded....by the birthers, the GOP and the Tea Party. Done to discredit him from the very beginning. Why? Because the unthinkable had happened. A black man had become President of the United States of America.
Today, President Barack Obama produced a copy of the Statement of Live Birth from the state of Hawaii. That put the issue to rest right? Wrong. Now the right in the US are saying "It's a forgery" "the paper is too new" " the type is wrong for the time it was supposed to have been printed" on and on and on.
The political right, the GOP and the Tea Party have made an issue of everything about President Obama. His race was an issue, his bi-racialness was an issue, his friends were an issue, his religion was an issue, his political leaning was an issue [accused of socialism], his method of communicating with the public was an issue [town hall meetings and TV], the way he speaks was an issue [accused of being elitist], his wife's crusade to educate Americans about childhood obesity was questioned, her vacations were questioned and so much more. He has been criticized for every single move he's made. From the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf, to his healthcare plan for Americans...calling it disrespectfully "Obamacare". Every move he's made the Republican party has opposed him. The Republican party misses no opportunity to discredit him and his ability to run his administration.
I'm not talking about disagreeing with this man. I'm talking about continued and consistent attempts to cast him as a liar and someone who doesn't care about the American people.
I've been around through many Presidential Administrations. I have seen 10 Presidents come and go. Never have I seen any treated in this manner. Even George W. Bush wasn't treated in such a despicable way. Even Bill Clinton, despite his extra-curricular activities, is now regarded as a great President.
I believe that the Republican Party along with the Tea Party and so-called "birthers" just cannot come to terms with the fact that their country has elected a black man to lead them. That is how deep I believe racism runs in the United States.
Not that it doesn't exist in Canada it most certainly does but Canada doesn't have the history of "slavery" that the US does. Those hundreds of years that the United States thought it was perfectly alright to own slaves as they were legally viewed as "non-human". A civil war was fought, emancipation was enacted and that was the end of slavery. But, unfortunately not the end of how whites felt towards the black race. That has been more difficult to overcome and cannot be legislated. So, here we are in the year 2011, a century of high technology, instant communication and China's approaching economic dominance. But have our attitudes kept pace with changing times? I don't think so. We still battle racism, homophobia, anti-abortion, pro-gun lobbies and religious extremism.
We need to do more. We need to focus on ways to eliminate prejudice, intolerance and indoctrination. People need to be free to be who they are and to be judged accordingly. They should not be judged on their race, sexuality, religion, age, physical or mental ability. Women should be free to chose. Healthcare should be free to all.
President Barack Obama is an African-American legally chosen by the citizens of that country.
It's a country that prides itself on the "American Dream". He is symbolic to millions of Americans who have always been left out of that dream. He is intelligent, educated, dedicated, hard working and a visionary. He loves his family and they him. He is entitled to be treated with respect. Americans who have done otherwise need to get their act together and stop, think and look deep inside themselves and find a way to become the kind of person they believe themselves to be.
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