A Silly Poll or a Hidden Threat
September 30th 2009 15:43
Facebook is a great place to socialize with people you've lost touch with over the years or to just make new friends and see their lives in pictures and read their words and their thoughts daily. I have to admit, I've joined the application revolution and am almost addicted to it weekly. But the news that someone had the guts to post a poll concerning a death threat to our President floored me. I realize that not everyone in the country will like a President or even respect his decision or political affiliations, but any threat made against a leader should be taken seriously and handled with the utmost of importance. The Secret Service is doing their best, according to news reports, to track down and scold whomever posted the poll. They should even, in my opinion, go a step further and investigate those who actually voted in favor of the threat just to make their point clear that threats like these will not be ignored or laughed at. But then again, what's going to happen to these people when you've got crazies on a daily basis protesting with threatening signs in their hands about our President's safety, the safety of his wife and children, and even going so far as boldly standing outside of town hall meetings fully armed because they have the rights to bear arms even at a Presidential rally?
Former President Bush had his protesters, he had some things said to him publicly, and heck he even had a pair of shoes thrown at him in a foreign country. But I'd be willing to bet that he didn't receive half as many threats towards his life and that of his family as President Obama has since his campaign for the Presidency began. As a country, we're setting a dangerous example for future political figures, and especially for the highest office in the land. In 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated, this country took a moment to realize just how easily our leader could be exposed to an assassin's bullet. In 2001, our country took another moment to realize just how easily our country is open to terrorism on our own soil. And now in 2009, our country should take a moment to realize that politics have become a new breeding ground for left wing radicals and bigots from every corner of North America to hash out their hatred and possible threats of violence against not only our leadership, but any political figure who openly supports his policies.
Every President walks in the doors of the white house inheriting the problems and pitfalls of the former one, but President Obama is getting way more than just a national deficit, a flailing economy, and another Vietnam-esque war, all of which he had no hand in creating as our leader. But he's also getting a hatred and disrespect like I've never seen before in my 30 years on this earth. I could be wrong, maybe other Presidents, within my lifetime, have received the same type of brick wall that Obama keeps having to deal with and we, as the public, just never heard about it much because we didn't have things like Facebook and 24/7 news coverage. But now that we are hearing it and seeing it 24/7 on the television, radio, and the world wide web, I think it's time this country took another gleaming moment to put a halt to something that could possibly lead to another ugly and tragic stain in American history.
In 1963, this country was in tumult with civil rights marches and the push for equality amongst ALL Americans black and white. Kennedy's assassination, as tragic as it was, led to a different kind of change and uprising in this country than what could possibly happen to today. I hate to say it, but if things were to keep going at the rate they are at this point in time and something were to happen to our President (God forbidding), this country would come to a complete halt in the form of a possible race war like the world has never seen before. It's a far fetched idea, but sometimes I wonder if this is what most radical Republicans, Skinheads, the KKK and a thousand other hate groups ultimately want. Especially now that we have somewhat progressed racially by electing an African American President.
Any threat against any high ranking political office should always be handled in a manner according to laws that have been set up for reprimand or punishment, no matter if its something as serious as someone standing by fully armed, or something as silly as a poll on a social networking site. The White House needs to take back control of this spiraling climate of anti-establishment, anti-reform, and anti-President Obama and bring back some kind of decorum. The same was beginning under President Bush towards the end of his presidency, and was ignored coming into elections, but now it's beyond ridiculous and bordering on dangerous. If we as Americans can't have respect for our own country and protect it's leadership, no matter our differing political views and now racial makeup, then how can we expect the rest of the world to respect our country in any way, shape or form.
In 1963, this country was in tumult with civil rights marches and the push for equality amongst ALL Americans black and white. Kennedy's assassination, as tragic as it was, led to a different kind of change and uprising in this country than what could possibly happen to today. I hate to say it, but if things were to keep going at the rate they are at this point in time and something were to happen to our President (God forbidding), this country would come to a complete halt in the form of a possible race war like the world has never seen before. It's a far fetched idea, but sometimes I wonder if this is what most radical Republicans, Skinheads, the KKK and a thousand other hate groups ultimately want. Especially now that we have somewhat progressed racially by electing an African American President.
Any threat against any high ranking political office should always be handled in a manner according to laws that have been set up for reprimand or punishment, no matter if its something as serious as someone standing by fully armed, or something as silly as a poll on a social networking site. The White House needs to take back control of this spiraling climate of anti-establishment, anti-reform, and anti-President Obama and bring back some kind of decorum. The same was beginning under President Bush towards the end of his presidency, and was ignored coming into elections, but now it's beyond ridiculous and bordering on dangerous. If we as Americans can't have respect for our own country and protect it's leadership, no matter our differing political views and now racial makeup, then how can we expect the rest of the world to respect our country in any way, shape or form.
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