Too Far

 
People send me stuff everyday and I really appreciate it. However, some things are just wrong. Take for example this graphic which someone sent me last week.

 

Why Obama Will Lose the Black Vote:

 

Hey, stop laughing! While that picture does have a humorous shock value due to being outrageously politically incorrect, stop and think for a moment of what's really going on here. This is not the first "humorous" graphic sent to me about Obama this year that related to race. In fact it is just one of many, most of which I have deleted as unfit for use, even if some of them did have a little chuckle value. I delete them because they rely upon harmful racial stereotypes to get their laughs, stereotypes which they also reinforce. You can't laugh at that picture unless you are aware of the stereotype that blacks are lazy and don't want to work.

What is also sad is that this sort of dirty and racist campaigning takes place beneath the radar. To my knowledge, no mainstream media has reported on the number of racist attacks on Obama that are flooding cyberspace. It is a hidden campaign, conducted by emails that arrive silently in cyber mailboxes, where they are read and deleted - or passed on. Some recipients are offended. Others consider it nothing but humor and laugh it off. Still others take to it to heart and believe it, perhaps more than you would think.

I have no intention of voting for Barack Obama for president, because I think he is wrong on the issues. That is where this campaign should be waged, in the realm of ideas. But if it is waged on the level of a racist smear campaign then the opponents of Obama will lose - and they will deserve to.

Many things people send me I really like. Here's an example:

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq. Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not.

Back then, America had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.

And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.

Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old, pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort.

Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.

You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted.

And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops! Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies.

No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so bravely to preserve.

It is not the same country. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.

We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third, or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists' cause. Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits.

So we either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing.

America is not at war.
The military is at war.
America is at the mall.

 

I haven't lived in Amherst since October, so I will not be participating in the town election on Tuesday. However, if I were voting these are the two candidates I would choose for the Select Board. 

So do like they do in Springfield, and vote early and often!

Speaking of Amherst, just the other day I noticed how my Irish skin, as it does every winter, has turned a pale white. However, a little time with my friends hanging out at some of the fun-filled hideaways around Amherst's Puffer's Pond should cure that.