Divisiveness. Us vs. Them! is pure ugliness!

This objectionable photo is making the rounds again.

I first saw this when then-Senator Obama was running for President while I was stationed in Afghanistan in 2008. It angered me then; this weekend I saw it once again on Facebook and it pisses me off just as much now as it did four years ago. It was originally used to attempt to dissuade voters for voting for "one of them."

If this photo had been taken of President Bush, he'd have been holding a coloring book (j/k). Okay, okay, cheap shot.

Seriously, I see great things in this photo.

1) The photo shows Senator (when this photo was taken) Obama reading. Think of the message this sends out to young kids! The President is a man of books, scholarly books no less!

2) He is reading a book about other cultures! I only wish earlier Presidents had done more of this, maybe then they'd have had a better understanding of the people in the Middle East--nay, the world!

Our country has a long history of supporting the "wrong people" in that region... witness this, in the 1950s through the late 70s we supported the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein in Iran and yes, the U.S. even supported Osama Bin Laden's attempts to combat Russia in Afghanistan in the late 70s, long before he turned on us. Our support for each of these men has come back to haunt our nation in countless ways in which we are still reaping the ill-effects.

3) His wedding band is clearly visible. Need I say more about that? Okay, maybe I should. I am referring to the fact that the President loves his family. He loves his wife and his two daughters! i.e., He IS a family man.

As to when I mentioned that earlier Presidents should expose themselves to other cultures either through book or more personal means, I think too many of all our politicians rely far too much on intelligence reports alone and not enough on just going out and testing the waters themselves (within the bounds of safety, of course). If we all truly were to experience the people here and abroad, I'd think we'd see that our perceived enemies are not so different than ourselves.

My comments below are aimed at no one in particular but just some thoughts and observations I have made while in Kuwait and in Afghanistan. I'm sure some of "my brothers and sisters" with whom I served have their own observations as well.

All peoples, all of them, worry about surviving one day to the next; we worry about feeding our children; worry about their future; hoping for a better day, etc.

For many cultures abroad, those people worry about from where their next meal will come.

Yes, many Americans worry about that as well, which only serves to make my point...

Many abroad worry about what disease might come along to wipe out all that they cherish; or if their own government will enslave them, or steal their children to fight their wars; and countless other things that we Americans would never ever consider or even question.

I have seen our people, leaders and civilians alike, spouting stupidity, saying other cultures place little or no value on human life. I dare anyone to go overseas, Africa or Afghanistan, or southeast Asia, for example, and talk to a parent who has watched a child die.

I posit they feel every bit the same loss we do when we lose a child.

While covering a story in Afghanistan, I personally witnessed the anguish of a father who had come to an Afghan medical clinic to see his son (a member of the Afghan National Police) who had been shot in the head by the Taliban. When told his son would never leave the clinic alive, I saw the pain as the father turned, head bowed as he walked silently away. Having a son myself, I can empathize how I would have felt. I wanted to cry for this man, so please do not tell me "they" do not value life the way we do.

Sure, it's easy to say things like that when we see someone walk into a crowd wearing a suicide vest. Sure, it's easy to point fingers and say, "see, this what the Muslim faith condones." I say hogwash! The Christian Crusades of earlier times was no less brutal and no less hateful.

I hesitate even doing the "my pain is worse than yours;" I am constantly reminded of the "people are people so why should it be that we get along so awfully (as the song says)?"

We've certainly had our own share of loonies here who have killed indiscriminately. Look at Timothy McVeigh, for example. His bomb targeted the innocent and left many a family in despair, wondering “why us? What did we do to deserve this?”

So many of us have not seen the abject poverty abroad (except perhaps those who have volunteered their time doing missionary work... or those of us servicemembers who have been stationed overseas).

I venture a guess that if our own people suffered from the same level of sadness, those who have witnessed civil war on a daily basis, the governments who have enslaved or starved their people, or those who have lived in a war zone day in and day out for year after year... witnessing pure futility. If we witnessed those kinds of horrors every day, do you really think we would act any better?

For our leaders who find it so easy to send our children into harm's way, I say that maybe they might be more hesitant to do so if they had to send their own children. In fact, I almost think it should be a prerequisite for sending others to war.

Sure, those of us who serve understand the magnitude and danger AND possible consequences of our actions. BUT tell that to a young child. Do they understand what it really means when Mommy or Daddy or their big brother or sister may not come home again? That they may never see them again. I firmly believe our leaders, Democrat and Republican alike, find it too easy to send troops overseas.

So why this lengthy commentary? If you read the original comment attached to the photo...

[THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD AND CURL YOUR HAIR: The name of the book Obama is reading is called: The Post-American World and it was written by a fellow Muslim. "Post" America means the World After America! Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican. Folks we need to be aware of what our President is thinking--or planning. We must expose Obama's radical ideas and his intent to bring down our beloved America!]

One can easily see the author was attempting to divide us by trying to paint the President as "one of them." It's outrageous, it's divisive, it's racist, it's anti-religious and it is pure bigotry. And I am sick of it.

And if you aren't, why not???

They said what???

What do Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson and the staff of the University of Notre Dame's newspaper The Observer all have in common? No, this isn't a joke as I do not like to mention 'Notre Dame' in the same breath as these two men. All three have found themselves in a bit of hot water this week when they acted without thinking first.

First off, let me make no bones about it. I despise political and religious intolerance, and I have a very deep disdain for both Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh. I find them both to be pompous, hypocritical windbags.

Both are guilty of regularly inserting their foot in their mouth(s). And for Notre Dame, I expected better than what happened there earlier in the week.

In ranking of particular importance, I task both Limbaugh and Robertson, as I think they all too often speak without considering the implication of their words.

In case you missed it, Pat Robertson earlier this week practically said that the disaster in Haiti was invited upon its people after they had made a pact with the devil when they threw the French government out (many, many decades ago).

Now mind you, it's hard to take Pat Robertson's (I hate to even call him a reverend) rants seriously. He has, for years, made cryptic Biblical threats when he has seen actions for which he doesn't agree. I mean, don't you know, Hurricane Katrina visited New Orleans because of the actions of homosexuals residing there; likewise when he said meteors would flatten Orlando, Florida, for similar reasons. He even indicated that the acts of 9/11 were the results of this nation's collective sins (funny, Osama Bin Laden would agree with the right reverend over this issue).

Robertson has been making these ridiculous rants for decades and it must make for great ratings for his '700 Club' when he goes into one of these religious stupors, otherwise why would he do it? You don't really suppose God visits upon Robertson's altar to whisper in his ear about what he (or she) is displeased about this week, do you? And no one else?

C'mon. Religious leaders like Robertson truly test my patience. Seriously, I believe in God... it's just some of God's messed up religious leaders (dare I say kooks?) and institutions in which I have little or no faith.

Next.

Radio commentator (and unofficial) rank-in-faith leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh is off his rocker yet again. This week, in the aftermath, of the Haitian disaster said on his program that President Obama is using the disaster to hone and bolster his political image.

I was not aware that offering humanitarian aid was a political tool--I always, and maybe stupidly, thought it was the Christian and moral thing to do. Would Mr. Limbaugh prefer we stand by as thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people suffer and die by our inactions?

If by Limbaugh's definition that our President is acting out of political gain, then President George W. Bush was guilty of this as well when offering humanitarian aid when the tsunamis struck Indian Ocean countries in 2004... or when President Bush offered humanitarian aid when Katrina struck New Orleans... oh wait, we all know how well the Bush administration reacted to that disaster.

Maybe President Bush believed Pat Robertson's claims and decided NOLA wasn't worth the effort?

Both of these two men have refused to apologize for their comments. Robertson said he was quoted out of context--and to be fair, Robertson did offer prayers to the Haitian citizens.

Mr. Limbaugh says he stands behind his words. Both... both so-called righteous men are morons as far as I am concerned.

Do Republicans really need a leader, even if they won't admit that is what role Limbaugh plays, like this loud-mouthed hypocritical radio show host? Limbaugh would be quick to say that he is not a politician, but a commentator and an entertainer.

I would also offer that he is none of the above.

AND then there is The Observer. Normally, I have the utmost respect for the University of Notre Dame's daily newspaper. After working at the university for eight years, I feel I have some insights about the school.

To read of the following incident hurts me; I love Notre Dame. I always have. My son is a 1999 ND graduate, and for those who feel the school is far too conservative, I would offer that that is not necessarily the case and that the student body and its faculty have done great things in its long storied history.

But with the January 13, 2010, issue I must take a sad exception. The staff must have taken a collective leave of absence on Wednesday when they published a cartoon strip that asked the following.

"How do you turn a fruit into a vegetable?" The answer, according to the strip, was "a baseball bat!"

What??? This thinly veiled and patently unfunny comic was, unfortunately, referring to gays. I am simply shocked beyond words--AND for many reasons beyond the obvious.

I worked at Notre Dame Law School Library in 1998 when University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured and left to die by two local criminals. University of Notre Dame students, like many other universities stood united in fellowship and voiced their opposition together against hate and bigotry. I stood with hundreds of ND students and faculty members at a candlelit vigil that was moving beyond words. Prayers were offered for Shepard's recovery, and sadly in this case those prayers went unanswered.

Shepard's death shook our students and many of us adults too--and citizens around the world. Many activists have tirelessly worked since to ensure that his death would not be in vain (made all the more obvious by the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009).

But the publication of this strip has unquestionably done much to undo the goodwill fostered on this campus.

Worse still--and much more troubling, the comic strip original Q & A was as follows. "How do you turn a fruit into a vegetable?" This time, the far more offensive punchline, answered by saying, "AIDS." Real funny, huh?

Have we not gotten beyond this sort of stupidity, this kind of bigotry? Obviously not.

This incident begs many questions, what were these young people, these bright, young journalists thinking? How could they have permitted such a pointed cartoon to go to press? What of the artist's character of this strip? Where was the newspaper's faculty adviser who permitted this comic strip to be included? And what does this say about the university itself?

Sadly, to some degree the Golden Dome is a bit tarnished in my eyes today.

BUT on the positive side of this episode, and to the newspaper's credit, the editor and staff ran a detailed apology in today's edition. Unlike the elder Robertson and Limbaugh, the staff of the Observer realized its error and quickly took measures to rectify their mistake. They did the right thing, but this staff certainly took a hit on the stage of journalistic moral integrity.

Lastly, will Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh follow suit? Don't hold your breath. Stupidity is alive and well on America's television and radio airwaves!

photo of the University of Notre Dame administration building is by the author.

Bigots

This goes out as old news, actually.

But tell me what's wrong with this photo? How can people be so exuberantly gleeful when they are spreading so much hurt and pain?

This photo makes me ill looking at people who so happily celebrate the hurt they have caused.

The reverberations of last's week's hateful vote will spread like concentric waves after throwing a rock in the water of a lake; the ripple effect will assuredly touch countless lives.

How can people band together to spend millions of dollars so to deny all citizens equal rights? And why are people's civil rights being put forth for people to vote upon? To be trampled on? To be denied? To be bartered?

Last month when I attend the historic march for Equality in Washington, D.C. I saw a man carrying a placard that read, "If you don't like gay marriage, don't have one!" So why cannot *these* people take care of their own lives and let others tend to their own? Rhetorical question, I know.

Some people just cannot help themselves in throwing their judgment around without thought or care who they hurt.

If so-called Christians are so worried about the sanctity of marriage, why aren't they working to pass laws to outlaw divorce? Why don't they devote those misspent millions of dollars to provide counseling to protect troubled marriages? So let me ask another question... did the sky fall when gays were permitted to marry in Vermont? in New Hampshire? in Massachusetts? in Connecticut? or in Iowa? or in Europe where gay marriages have been legal for decades? No?

This is Christianity at its worst! And it certainly doesn't display the love of God that I follow and love. Justice denied for some is injustice for all.

So my question is, what are these people so afraid of? This is just wrong in so many ways!