While Hill’ was dodging snipers, and Bill was dodging Vanity Fair, and John McCain was pining for more troops in Iraq, one of the most amazing stories in our country’s rich history was playing out–although you’d be hard-pressed to discern it through the chorus mind-bending propaganda flooding the airwaves.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to soak up this inspiring tale, don’t feel bad; detractors are working around the clock to keep the public bullhorns pregnant with anti Barack Obama rhetoric—rhetoric I believe is engineered for the express purpose of accentuating the differences between the Senator from Illinois and the average American, and not the voluminous number of similarities.

The abridged version of the story is about a kid named “Barry,” who was raised by a single parent (and grandparents) since the age of two, and like millions grew up without his biological father. It’s about a teenager who struggled to “reconcile perceptions about his multiracial heritage,” grew detached and admits to using marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol during high school to cope. And most importantly it’s about a man named Barack Obama who turned his life around 180 degrees, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, became a U.S. senator, and miraculously achieved the pinnacle of United States politics as the first African American (aka “black”), man to ever win his party’s nomination for president.

But that’s not the fantastically inspiring American journey the fear inducers, closet bigots, ignorants, and mainstream conservative media want us to be discussing with our kids. They don’t want us focused on the incredible number of similarities between Barack Obama and so many millions of Americans who face the same exact hurdles in life. They don’t want us focused on the family man who overcame stacked odds against him, achieved the American dream, and recently celebrated his 16th wedding anniversary to his Harvard educated wife. No. They want us to focus on sound bytes and outrageous theories from those who want us to believe Barack and Michelle Obama are dangerously DIFFERENT, and even pose a threat to the quality of American life.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Here’s one such divisive commentary, easy to find with a simple Google search:

“Barack Obama is a mulatto. Several dictionaries define mulatto as: “The offspring of one white parent and one black parent; a person whose ancestry is a mixture of Negro and Caucasian.” This designation isn’t used much anymore because for a long time, a mulatto was cruelly shunned by both races. Obama seems to have a problem figuring out which race he wants to belong to…” * -Devvy Kid

Are we Americans supposed to be “proud” of ignoramuses like these who have no desire whatsoever to discuss the ISSUES? Why should Obama have to choose which race he belongs to? Isn’t it the choosing of races that has been largely responsible for perpetuating racism? Isn’t the mark of a great leader his or her ability to identify with and INCLUDE as many people as possible? Given the extraordinary diversity in our country, wouldn’t Barack’s mixed race make him an ASSET to our country, not a liability? Heck, in this age of diversity, multi race should be a prerequisite to becoming president!

I confess I am not surprised by ignorance dominating the dial. Imus and Richards, among others, have proven time and again that bigotry is still sadly a huge part of our cultural landscape. There are actually still people who believe our country belongs to the white man, and everyone else should go back to Mexico or Africa or Asia and leave them to their hard-earned country. I mean, forget the fact that the country was built on the backs of black slaves and they’ve never been given a dime for their work, or the inconvenient truth that the white man stole the entire country from the Indians.

Barack’s wife Michelle, referred to as Obama’s “Baby mama” on Fox News (!), recently stated she hoped people would just “focus on the issues.” Sacramentans know first hand that issues are not important to the media. Follow the money; issues don’t sell newspapers or jack up Nielsen ratings. Michelle is now finding out the hard way that and her husband’s goal of making the country better is NOT congruent with the gossip-hungry media’s goal of mere survival in the digital age—-and that plays right into the paws of bigots and good ol’ boys everywhere. ‘

I guess this alarming brand of ignorance explains the preposterous rumors being spread about Obama–preposterous in both scope and intensity (see link below). Maybe it’s still just too hard for some people to get their minds around a BLACK person in the WHITE house.

So forget the fact that Obama is the first presidential candidate who could truly identify with both whites and blacks and quite possibly bridge the racial divide more effectively than any president in recent history…. or that he is first black male role model in a LONG TIME and has inspired young black men to model themselves after him… or that he is a Harvard Law School magna cum laude graduate and expert communicator… or that he was among the first to prophetically blast Bush in 2002 over the war in IRaq on the grounds that it was a dangerous idea and would result in untold bloodshed and voted against it… or that his rise to the top of the political ladder proves in aces his ability to influence people and overcome extraordinary odds..

Just forget all that unimportant stuff, and listen to those conservative, “Christian” (?!) voices that are desperately trying to convince us Mr. Barack Obama is “scary” anti patriot swine not worthy of the office of president.

Or don’t.

When I was in the Army I visited Korea multiple times. On one occasion I visited the demilitarized zone with my fellow soldiers. As we stood on the DMZ facing the North, we could hear a booming voice over a PA system barking what we were told was propaganda engineered to coax South Koreans into defecting to the North (i.e. “Come to the North where life is wonderful!”). Someone asked our Korean tour guide to translate what they were saying. He turned to us and nervously joked, “We don’t listen to the voices.”

Obama campaign FIGHT THE SMEARS web site

Sources:
Zimbio.com

Newswithviews.com