Just before the Senate vote on the first of three procedural motions to move its health care reform bill toward final passage, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) appeared to urge Americans to pray that a member of the majority caucus would not show up to vote, thus leaving the Democrats one vote shy of breaking the GOP filibuster. The thought is that the “member” he was talking about was Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV). Sen. Byrd who is old and frail was wheeled in for the 1:00am vote, and was the only member missing prior to the vote for at least 3 hours before prior to the vote and 1 hour prior to Sen. Coburn’s speech.
COBURN: “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray”.
Is this what we have become? We have stooped to the level of praying that members of congress would die, so that a legislation would fail? How sick is this thinking and when did this type of radicalism start? When did we decide that this type of behavior is ok and warrants reelection. In fact, it is ok enough that those on Capitol Hill aren’t even required to make apologizes anymore? But where is this behavior coming from?
If the next thought is that perhaps Sen. Coburn was suggesting that we should pray that a voting member of the senate, be tied up at dinner, sleeping or some other form of delay, clearly that thought is flawed. But what exactly did Sen. Coburn mean? He isn’t part of the Anti-Obama movement or the Tea Baggers that have called for Obama’s removal from office or even the few that have suggested hanging him.
No, that isn’t who Coburn is. In Fact he is a friend of the President. Sending him notes weekly, expressing hopeful wishes of encouragement and well wishes. Obama and Coburn came to the U.S. Senate at the same time and quickly became friends and cosponsors on bills together. Sure, there were calls for George W. Bush’s impeachment. But to my knowledge, there was never an echo as clear today, or even a whisper for his assassination, hanging or bodily harm as some on the far right have suggested for our current president. But it’s not just that, that worries me. If you look at the behavior of the GOP and it’s allies, some things might make you question them also.
• The Birthers Movement – Who claim that President Obama was NOT born in the United States, thus making him unqualified to be the Commander in Chief of the United States, as stated in the Constitution. There is a two part for me here so bare along – (1) He was born in the United States – Last time I checked Hawaii was still part of the union. (2) John Sidney McCain was born on Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, of which had the full endorsement of the group fighting Obama’s Presidency which is the basis of their argument.
• Conservapedia – a Watchdog group of conservatives that host a website www.conservapedia.com has called and funds commercials calling Obama a Muslim. Barack Obama isn’t a Muslim, and has confessed his love and faith in the Christian faith. But the greater question is; so what if he was a Muslim? Our constitution is written so that we have freedom of religion. Conservapedia also spent over $3.5 million in an ad campaign claiming that Barack Obama was holding Muslim religious prayers with his family in the Oval Office. This was broadcast in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida. They have also supported the idea that Obama wasn’t born in the US and shouldn’t be Commander in Chief.
• The GOPPAC – Republican Political Action Committee spent $12.7 million on ads, exploiting Barack Obama’s middle name “Hussein”. In the ad it depicts Obama as a muslim, and says quote “is this the person we can trust to fight terror, or is this the face of a supporter”.
• Sarah Palin – Called Barack Obama a Terrorist in theory, by making a connection to William Ayers, a 1960’s radical that was convicted of bombings in protest to the Vietnam war. Obama & Ayers do know each other, they both were professors at the University of Chicago. Ayers who served jail time for his 60’s & 70’s violent crimes, attended a house party to elect Barack Obama into the Illinois state Senate. Claims were made by Sarah Palin that this house party took place at Ayers house, but in fact the party took place at the President of University of Chicago’s home located off campus.
• For the First Time in history a sitting congressman interrupted a President’s speech to a joint congress when Rep. Joe Wilson yelled out “you lie” when the president spoke about healthcare in this country.
• Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Sandra Schultz Newman, a member of John McCain’s national task-force monitoring Election Day voting and the Pennsylvania G.O.P. sent an email to Jewish voters, equating a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of those Jews who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s,”
I guess the real question is this; Even though he is not, what would be the issue if Obama was a Muslim? What does that say to our young American Muslim youth? ‘I’m sorry, but because a group of radical Muslims flew 4 planes into buildings on September 11th, you have no reason to work hard and become educated, because the American People will never trust you because of your religious values’. Is this what we are to tell our children?
Is it the Republicans view that only Anglo Saxon Americans, Christians can strive to be president in this country? Is the view that Barack Obama had a greater chance of being elected because as Rush Limbaugh said ‘he’s half white, so many felt more secure with that’? Don’t say no, or you will be compelled by your GOP leaders to make a formal apology to Rush, but you get the point.
When did it become so viral in this country that certain candidates started questioning the patriotism of other candidates and calling them Terrorists? Where has this nation Gone? When did any democratic congressmen or senators ever interrupt President Bush or any previous presidents speech with words like “you lie”? It has never happened. Never. Even though, we now know, it could have warranted it with Bush 2.0
It’s no secret that the election of Barack Obama was a contentious and heated. We witnessed the election of our first minority President in this country that was founded with one of the greatest human rights sins in existence, slavery. There are those that hate Barack Obama’s policy and then there are those that hate Barack Obama because of his name and skin color. The biggest tragedy here is that people hate him, without seeing what he will do, instead, what they believe or have been told he will do, by a group of haters.
No comments:
Post a Comment