I was browsing Facebook today and a friends “status†(like twitter before there was twitter) said this:
“Given this nation's history of whackos (right wing and left wing) trying to assassinate presidents, and it's history of violence against African Americans, am I not justified in my anger when a white man shows up with a loaded gun at a presidential town hall meeting?â€
He also had this to say:
“I'm not one to trample on a person's right to bear arms, however, you should have enough common sense to know that at heated town hall meetings and one that the President will appear, it might not be a good idea to have a loaded gun on my person.â€
To read an article about the gun story to give yourself more context click below.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/11/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5235445.shtml
**Also, it should be noted that the individual who brought his loaded gun and was standing outside the townhall the President of the United States was holding was within his right to do so under New Hampshire state law.
I actually had no opinion whatsoever on the gun incident. Personally, I think it was a pointless stunt that really didn’t prove to be beneficial in any way. What bothers me about his status was that this story was his status at all.
By broadcasting this story on his status he is doing exactly what the right wing/fringe left, whatever you want to call them, want him to do by allowing himself to be distracted by these types of incidents. The day of this incident the President was there to discuss healthcare insurance reform in this country. To open an honest dialogue with the American people about heatlhcare and the ways he wants to try to make sure every American has heatlhcare insurance. And from that event what was he most angry about? The fact that millions and millions of American don’t have heatlhcare when we are the wealthiest country in the world, that Veterans still can’t get proper healthcare treatment when they return from a duty of protecting us. No, he allowed himself to be distracted from trying to get reform and was pulled into these petty arguments that yield no results.
Those fringe people out there yelling and making a scene at townhalls across the country don't have any fresh ideas to present to the American people, that’s why you see these type of thuggish incidents going around the nation at townhalls. If they truly had the American people’s interest at heart, they wouldn’t allow needed reform to fail because they can’t comprise for the betterment of their own country. When is it going to stop being about you won this and I won that and be about how do we get America back on the right track to where the rest world looks at us as an example of how to progress and evolve as country and not bitter people who are constantly divided by etiology.When I consider patriotism, I always remember the passionate words of Adlai Stevenson: "Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."
