The election of Barack Obama as president was a historic moment for a nation that, by law, once considered African-Americans as less than human, as property.
While our nation has come far since slavery was abolished in 1865, certainly racial divides, and racism, still exist.
With Obama, most of the millions of Americans who would hope to elect someone else as president feel that way because of the substantive philosophical/policy differences they have with him. In his just over two years in office, he has made plenty of decisions that can easily be questioned and criticized.
So then, with all the legitimate reasons that exist for taking issue with Obama's presidency, we wonder why it is that there are still those Obama opponents who want to lower the dialogue to the most distasteful level possible.
In California, a Republican Party official and Tea Party activist in Orange County ?Marilyn Davenport ?is under fire for the doctored photo she emailed to others that has Obama's face superimposed onto the body of an ape with text beneath the caption that reads, ?Now you know why no birth certificate.?
At first, Davenport's reaction to the story in a weekly newspaper about the ?joke? photo she had sent out prompted her to call on the ?coward? who leaked the photo to come forward. Now, with all the attention and after condemnation by fellow Republicans, Davenport is apologizing, but refusing to resign from her committee seat with the Orange County GOP.
Davenport ought to resign, even if the only reason she does so is because it's what would be best for her party.
But the broader question of importance here is, why are there still people who want to go beyond opposing Obama because of what he stands for and what he has done while in office to knocking him down by playing on old fears about people of different backgrounds?
Before we continue down this road, we must acknowledge the nasty nature of some of the criticisms of our previous president, George W. Bush. Because race wasn't so much an issue with Bush, some of the foulest things said and written about him didn't generate much attention.
Presidents are subject to the harshest of critiques these days. Perhaps it's just indicative of an overall change in our society; an illustration of how reverence and respect for a high office such as the presidency have gone by the wayside in this digital age in which it's easy to slam someone and hide in anonymity.
But with Obama, there's still a disturbing degree of racial and religious animus just under the surface among some who oppose him. It becomes visible when Obama is equated to a primate, when he's branded a Muslim because of his name, when he's derided as being an illegitimate American by the ?birthers.?
Aren't there more important things ?real issues affecting our nation ?to worry about? Aren't there better ways to criticize the president and have it resonate than going after his heritage?
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