Real America
This is in response to Melanie Crisamore's recent letter regarding her disapproval of President-elect Obama's victory over John McCain on November 4. There is one part of her letter that is offensive and totally un-American. At the conclusion of that letter, she complains, "P.S. If any of you know it, his middle name is Hussein! I mean, come on!"
Clearly, this line is meant to imply that Obama is "foreign" and "not one of us." Throughout the primaries and the general election, both the Hillary Clinton and McCain campaigns tried to paint Obama as the "other" for political gain, and each time it backfired. Some have naively suggested that Obama's election shows that racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist in America. However, comments like those above, as well as shouts of "Terrorist!," "Kill him!," and the N-word screamed by fanatics at McCain-Palin rallies, along with McCain supporters holding stuffed monkeys with ropes tied around its neck, and paranoia that Obama is the "anti-Christ" show that prejudice and bigotry is not a thing of the past.
Right-wingers need to realize that this is not the America of 1955. America today is a multi-ethnic, multiracial, pluralistic society, but the election of a non-WASP male to the Presidency is, unfortunately, a scary thought to a certain segment of American society because it shatters their worldview - a view that small town, rural, white America is, somehow, the "real America."
Justin Garcia
East Hempfield
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