An-Nahar Newspaper: Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on!
First they called him a “Muslim” as if that makes him less relevant, less efficient, or lesser than other presidential hopefuls. Over time, they called him names, challenged his experience, drew him as a monkey, underestimated his intelligence and charisma, they wished him ill, some even called for his assassination. In their latest episode of bankrupt attempts to embarrass Barack Obama, the GOP questioned his place of birth and now his school achievement records.Only those born in the U.S. are eligible to hold the executive office.
Barack Obama, the president of the United States of America had to prove his Christianity, his patriotism, his intelligence, his capability to run a country to people who don’t care about any of that.
Their problem from the beginning is that Barack Obama is BLACK! Instead of the cheap tactics, they should come out and say, “we cannot tolerate to have a black man as our president and we are going to do everything we can to bring him down in any way imaginable to the sickest person among us. Signed Birthers, TeaBaggers, TeaParty members and silent Grand Old Party (GOP) Republican Party members.”
Racism in America has reached its peak as far as I’m concerned. The day I heard that the White House has released Obama’s “long form birth certificate” to appease the naggers and the unjust attackers, I was outraged.. Thankfully I was not the only one!
Outraged because a group of Americans have made it their business to fabricate lies, make up stories, build imaginary plots in their heads and somehow manage to spoon-feed their tall tales to a population that has been manipulated so many times as to what the “truth” is that it became numb and uninterested in checking for themselves.
Someone like Donald Trump has access to all media to spread rumors and lies about Obama’s birthplace not being Hawaii. The media don’t even bother to investigate the claims or challenge them. Trump’s only argument was, “You won’t believe what my investigators are finding in Hawaii!” That was sensational enough for most media outlets to give him credence, magnify his claim and spin more controversy around the president and his background.
What is alarming in all of these episodes is that our country is sinking in its own racism but we’re unable to face it head on and discuss it out in the open. As someone who is a naturalized citizen of the United States and extremely patriotic, I worry about how a group of people can totally discredit me and others if they choose to or go on the attack against immigrants like myself only on racist grounds.
How about my children and other first, second and third generation Arabs, Muslims, Asians, Africans and Latinos? How will they be treated in the future? Are we not allowed to participate and have an impact on our country and its future? Is this how the game will be played from now on?
Thank goodness more than half this country isn’t racist; otherwise Barack Obama wouldn’t be president today. The United States is going through a very important test right now and the moderate, collected, reasonable patriot voices must prevail. We need to stay focused on getting the economy back on track. We need to reestablish a strong standing in the world, mend relationships, strengthen existing ones and build brand new alliances that will move the world forward not backward.
Whether Barack Obama is at the helm or not is not as important as regaining our dignity, our compassion, and our love for our country before our love for politics, party and selves.
For now, we should stay on course towards a brighter future for all and tune out the noise that some are trying to distract us with. As the proverb goes, “Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.” الكلاب تنبح و لكن القافلة تكمل العبور
Labels: An-Nahar Newspaper
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10:22 AM
6 Comments:
Keep the conversation going...
unfortunately racism is one of the downsides of democracy, or at least the American version of democracy. if we take a look at the most flawed, Lebanese version of democracy, we can see that in a weird and twisted way, the Lebanese celebrate their differences, i emphasize on the weird and twisted. having the heads of legislative, executive powers as well as the president of the republic dedicated to certain sects by the far from perfect constitution somehow limits the raging fires of sectarianism, our Lebanese version of racism. and having lines being drawn on what can be discussed in the media (in that respect) is beneficial. of course the problem remains festering deep in the hearts of most Lebanese, but at least moral lines are rarely crossed. no Qur'an or Bible is burnt in public. just a thought, maybe if there were tighter laws governing the media in the US, then real democracy would prevail and no journalist would be let go from their job fro writing an article or airing a report in eulogy of a departed Muslim clergyman. the same goes for public (immoral and ungrounded)scrutiny of the president.
Thankyou.
But it's even nastier than you describe. It's some dirty place inside a whole bunch of the population. It has all sorts of secondary functions. And the great morass of people who don't know - and it would take a revelation to make them aware - their own racism. Their weird assumptions.
It goes with a large part of us still being a hick nation - with Rick Perry selling the snake oil.
We are going to have to decide whether we are going to be a modern country - which many of us want and have usually assumed. Ezra Pound could emigrate. And the country survived, it thought. But now
the viper of our ignorance and exacerbated racism is coming up to bite us - to keep us from being able to repair our economy, our education system, and the future of our technology.
Racism is prevalent here in the USA unfortunately it is a by product and or consequence of being a nation of immigrants...it is a cloud that hangs over our country. Festering or like an unseencer it has throughout our history and continues to be a cancer sadly. I am afraid it has not peaked as Ms. Octavia said but will continue to rear its ugly head in isolated incidences which it always does post Civil Rights Era of the 1960's towards blacks, post 1800 era via the Chinesed immigrants who built our railway infrastructure, WW II era versus Japanese Americans and toward native Americans at the outset of our nation's birth, and now most recently toward Muslims in the 9-11 era...
as a member of a minority, i have been witness to racism firsthand. It is not only from the ignorant people, but it is also from the so called educated ones. I thought when President Obama was elected, the US would be a better place, especially when it comes to racism. Unfortunately, it only added fuel to the fire. My hopes for my children, and for the future, is one day, racism will be just an embarrassing chapter in our history.
Really beautifully written, the racism that we are seeing is concerning, in many ways more than the racism of the past. Because now it has been emboldened by Money,Media and Powermongers. As part of a political platform it is also now embracing attacking all levels of America : The Unemployed, The Poor, the Disabled, the Sick, Immigrants and Refugees, and those that are of different religions or color.The Media is playing a huge role in perpetuating lies and whisper campaigns and smears and slurs. Octavia you bring up the Trump smears, and it's a valid concern, how and why did this rich man get so much air time to peddle an absolute lie. Where are the real journalists ? Thank you for being a real journalist asking the hard questions, and helping us look at who and what we face as a country right now.
I agree with you. I am an out-of-towner. Here in Australia, we have no axe to grind in your politics. We just believe in a fair go, and letting a guy do his job. To the best of his ability. It makes one cringe to see counterfeit patriotism masking a one-track mindset dedicated to preventing the President from achieving anything. They can not afford to let him shine as a President, as he would if the nihilism was not there.
It's Dog-in-the-Manger underpinned by the awful but subtle pang that this black guy will run rings around us, after our Top Turkey screwed it all up, Twice. "Hell, we cain't let this gah have any kinda place at the Tayble of Hist'ry."
This is a Weakness of the Democracy: When the Elected set their hearts and minds on power-blocking politics and hold their own selfish fears and desires above the objective good of the country. (And that includes the Democratic Party's elected Weasels who put fears for their precious careers above Vision for objective good.)
The people come to think: What is the point? Then watch TV. And what would they see there?
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