Can We Believe Those E-mails?

You know if I believed all those e-mails sent to me by my family and friends lately, I would be convinced that Obama was a tax raising, flag hating, godless, Muslim terrorist bent on destroying our country. Why in the hell would any right-thinking American patriot vote for this man?

Lately, I have spent a great deal of time sending e-mail replies directly from the http://www.snopes.com/ website that refute many, if not all of these outrageous forwarded e-mails. I remind my friends and family that we are in an election year and that many false and misleading things are being put out there on the internet about the candidates. If we simply forward them on to others without checking their veracity, then we are guilty of spreading those lies and half-truths. I also find it very interesting that the majority, if not all, of these forwarded e-mails are negative toward Obama. I am still waiting for equal time on negative McCain e-mails. Are there no concerns about a 71-year-old man who would continue Bush policies...the status quo for another four years?

What I feel is a campaign of fear against Barack Obama. Rumors and outright lies about the man and what he stands for are being circulated on the internet. These e-mails keep insisting repeatedly that he is a Muslim. Just look at his name, for heaven’s sake: Barack Hussein Obama. Can we trust anyone named after their father and grandfather? (George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush...hmmm) Then, of course, he went to that black Christian church for twenty years (wait a minute, I thought he was a Muslim?) where that crazy black minister of his keeps damning America in that endlessly played video clip. Surely, that should be enough to make us all afraid. Fear! Fear! Fear! That is what is being peddled here folks...FEAR.

So why do I support such a scary man? Well, it goes back to Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was his words that captured my attention:

“It is that fundamental belief--that I am my brother’s keeper—that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

“E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

“Now, even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America—there’s the United States of America.

“The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States, and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

“We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

I read one of Obama’s books, Dreams from My Father. I read about his early life being the multi-racial child of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. I read about his time living in Indonesia with his mother and his Indonesian stepfather. I read about his being raised by white grandparents in Hawaii and his struggle to fit into two worlds, one white and one black. I read about his efforts to work with Christian churches to organize and improve the lives of black residents living in Chicago’s poverty-stricken south side communities. I read about his struggle to know an absent father (that he only met once before his death) by meeting his extended African family in Kenya. I read about his struggle to go to Harvard Law School so that he could fulfill those dreams from his father. I have a better understanding of the man who might be our next president. I have a better feeling for what drives, what makes Barack Obama tick.

Finally, as if his words and deeds and his background were not enough to bring me into the Obama camp, there was a Newsweek article a few months ago that convinced me of his leadership ability. The article was about how the campaign workers in each camp felt about their organizations. Obama’s campaign workers genuinely liked their boss and their coworkers. They felt that they worked as a team and were held in mutual respect. Barack listened to them and wanted all their input before making a decision. This was at a time when other candidates were firing campaign managers and there was a lot of stress and fear driving the organizations. The article concluded that the Obama camp must have been doing something right for their candidate, a dark horse, junior senator to rise up out of nowhere and become the likely National Democratic Candidate for President of the United States of America.

Yes, I have hope for Barack Obama and I have hope for change. After eight long years of divisiveness, partisan politics, congressional gridlock, anger and fear, after the destruction of our economy and this country’s good reputation...you can bet I want change from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. This country needs to heal. This country needs to come together. This country needs to feel proud again. We can no longer be some lone cowboy ideology threatening the rest of the word, but we can be the United States of America, home of the brave and land of the free.

When you get those hateful, fear-filled e-mails do not become part of the campaign of fear. Read, investigate and check them out.

FOOD for THOUGHT...