A political rant.
I originally posted this to my facebook, but since I feel it deserves a broader audience, I'll post this here as well:
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Alright, after seeing and reading so many negative and utterly uninformed comments about Barack Obama, I not only feel utterly ashamed at the stupidity of some of my fellow Americans, but I also feel shame at the fact that we can't educate ourselves properly for an election. As a result, I'm going to take the time now to respond (if only futily) to a few of these insults I've heard. They piss me off enough, and I'm in a mood to rant.
1. Obama is an arab/has an islamic name/is tied to Saddam Hussein because of his name, therefore I don't trust him.
Barack's heritage has little, if any connection to Saudi Arabia, or much of the middle east. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was actually a senior governmental economist in Kenya, and his mother, Ann Dunham, was a white apple-pie American girl originally from Kansas. If it's his first or middle name that you're worried about, it comes not from any Islamic ties, aside from perhaps the origin of the name, but instead that he's named in honor of one of his grandfathers, Hussein Onyango Obama, who served as a mission cook for the British army during World War I. Therefore, pull your head out of your ass and read up on your canadates a little bit. You might want to consider dropping your overly blatant racism in the process.
2. Obama is a muslim, and muslims are terrorists!
I don't know how many times I've had to tell this to people, but Barack Obama is not a muslim, even if he has Obama or Hussein in his name. (See above arguement)
Obama, and his wife and kids, are members of the United Church of Christ. The United Church of Christ is a church founded by the union of two protestant churches in 1957; the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Congressional Christian Churches. The United Church is considered a mainline protestant church, and as far as I've been able to dig up about them, follow the same criteria of beliefs that 99% of us Christians hold to be necessary to actually be considered Christian; They believe Christ, the only son of God, was sent to Earth through the virgin Mary and eventually died for our sins to redeem the world. Muslims, on the other hand (and to my understanding), believe that Jesus was a great prophet, but that he was not the son of God. And even then, mainstream Islam does not advocate violence as a means of enforcing the will of God. The muslims who do advocate violence and orchestrate terrorist attacks are considered heretical.
And since I can't stress it enough, get your racist head out of your ass!
3. Obama has ties to a terrorist!
Ah, the latest mud sling from Palin and McCain. You must be referring to one of Obama's old acquaintances; William Ayers. Ayers, in the 1960s, founded Weather Underground, a radical left wing organization that is probably best known for a series of bombings in the US, of which, the first and most noteworthy being that of a New York Supreme Court Justice. Weather Underground has since been dissolved after Ayers left leadership, it's members flocking to other radical left wing organizations, and Ayers himself, after being a fugitive for more than 10 years turned himself into authorities in 1980 and has since turned his life around, becoming a regular, upstanding citizen of society. He now is a distinguished professor of education theory at the University of Illinois-Chicago, with many papers and books on educational theory under his belt.
It should also be noted that when Ayers was active with Weather Underground, Obama was no more than a young child at the time, being born in 1961. As far as Ayers and Obama working together, they both served on the same board for a group called the Woods Fund of Chicago, which is an anti-poverty group for the city that met twelve times. They also lived together in the same neighborhood for a time and Ayers also went as far as to host a coffee event for Obama during his first run for the Senate. Hardly anything I'd define as overtly terroristic activities, unless you conservative types consider these meetings to better society as acts of terror.
Now, to John McCain's credit, I do applaud that he has at least attempted to keep this blatantly racist and hateful attitude towards Obama under control at his rallies, but the rest of you reading who still hold contempt towards him simply because of his name, his color or the fact that he once worked with a reformed criminal need to sit down, sit back, chill the fuck out and think for a minute. I'm sick and tired of hearing stories about cries for Obama's death or that America's going down the can because the socialists/commies are taking over. We're well past the 1950s, McCarthy is dead (and was quite a criminal himself), and the U.S.S.R. is dissolved. Oh, and in case you missed the Berlin Wall coming down or that simply isn't enough for you, earlier today, the Bush administration removed North Korea from it's list of countries that willingly support and harbor terrorists from it's big list of nations that do so. So get over yourselves and shut up.
------------------------------------------
Alright, after seeing and reading so many negative and utterly uninformed comments about Barack Obama, I not only feel utterly ashamed at the stupidity of some of my fellow Americans, but I also feel shame at the fact that we can't educate ourselves properly for an election. As a result, I'm going to take the time now to respond (if only futily) to a few of these insults I've heard. They piss me off enough, and I'm in a mood to rant.
1. Obama is an arab/has an islamic name/is tied to Saddam Hussein because of his name, therefore I don't trust him.
Barack's heritage has little, if any connection to Saudi Arabia, or much of the middle east. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was actually a senior governmental economist in Kenya, and his mother, Ann Dunham, was a white apple-pie American girl originally from Kansas. If it's his first or middle name that you're worried about, it comes not from any Islamic ties, aside from perhaps the origin of the name, but instead that he's named in honor of one of his grandfathers, Hussein Onyango Obama, who served as a mission cook for the British army during World War I. Therefore, pull your head out of your ass and read up on your canadates a little bit. You might want to consider dropping your overly blatant racism in the process.
2. Obama is a muslim, and muslims are terrorists!
I don't know how many times I've had to tell this to people, but Barack Obama is not a muslim, even if he has Obama or Hussein in his name. (See above arguement)
Obama, and his wife and kids, are members of the United Church of Christ. The United Church of Christ is a church founded by the union of two protestant churches in 1957; the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Congressional Christian Churches. The United Church is considered a mainline protestant church, and as far as I've been able to dig up about them, follow the same criteria of beliefs that 99% of us Christians hold to be necessary to actually be considered Christian; They believe Christ, the only son of God, was sent to Earth through the virgin Mary and eventually died for our sins to redeem the world. Muslims, on the other hand (and to my understanding), believe that Jesus was a great prophet, but that he was not the son of God. And even then, mainstream Islam does not advocate violence as a means of enforcing the will of God. The muslims who do advocate violence and orchestrate terrorist attacks are considered heretical.
And since I can't stress it enough, get your racist head out of your ass!
3. Obama has ties to a terrorist!
Ah, the latest mud sling from Palin and McCain. You must be referring to one of Obama's old acquaintances; William Ayers. Ayers, in the 1960s, founded Weather Underground, a radical left wing organization that is probably best known for a series of bombings in the US, of which, the first and most noteworthy being that of a New York Supreme Court Justice. Weather Underground has since been dissolved after Ayers left leadership, it's members flocking to other radical left wing organizations, and Ayers himself, after being a fugitive for more than 10 years turned himself into authorities in 1980 and has since turned his life around, becoming a regular, upstanding citizen of society. He now is a distinguished professor of education theory at the University of Illinois-Chicago, with many papers and books on educational theory under his belt.
It should also be noted that when Ayers was active with Weather Underground, Obama was no more than a young child at the time, being born in 1961. As far as Ayers and Obama working together, they both served on the same board for a group called the Woods Fund of Chicago, which is an anti-poverty group for the city that met twelve times. They also lived together in the same neighborhood for a time and Ayers also went as far as to host a coffee event for Obama during his first run for the Senate. Hardly anything I'd define as overtly terroristic activities, unless you conservative types consider these meetings to better society as acts of terror.
Now, to John McCain's credit, I do applaud that he has at least attempted to keep this blatantly racist and hateful attitude towards Obama under control at his rallies, but the rest of you reading who still hold contempt towards him simply because of his name, his color or the fact that he once worked with a reformed criminal need to sit down, sit back, chill the fuck out and think for a minute. I'm sick and tired of hearing stories about cries for Obama's death or that America's going down the can because the socialists/commies are taking over. We're well past the 1950s, McCarthy is dead (and was quite a criminal himself), and the U.S.S.R. is dissolved. Oh, and in case you missed the Berlin Wall coming down or that simply isn't enough for you, earlier today, the Bush administration removed North Korea from it's list of countries that willingly support and harbor terrorists from it's big list of nations that do so. So get over yourselves and shut up.