Jimmy Carter Claims Racism Behind Joe Wilson's Comments

Stanton, Russ. “Opposition to Obama: It's not all black and white.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2009. Web. September 17, 2009 <http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-race18-2009sep18,0,3539044.story>.

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On the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton addresses ex-president Jimmy Carter's comments about Joe Wilson. Senator Wilson is the man who yelled "You lie!" to President Obama during his recent speech. Jimmy Carter has said about Wilson's comment, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man..." and Carter went on to say that he thinks Wilson's outburst was rooted in racism. President Obama's response has been to say that he "does not believe that the criticism comes based on the color of his skin.' The Times editor acknowledges that the protests against Obama's policies are legitimate, but also says that Carter has a point. The editor says that Obama's opponents are not just enraged about his policies, but that they are also "upset by the seismic social change symbolized by an African-American president whose middle name happens to be Hussein." The editor goes on to say that any conservatives who deny that are obtuse.

I disagree. I know that there are some misguided fringe people who do not like the fact that our president is black, but I do not think that the huge majority of the protests against Obama's policies have anything to do with race. I was born and raised in the south and do not care at all about the color of the president's skin. It is totally irrelevant. I care only about the policies he wants to implement. As far as Joe Wilson's outburst is concerned, I do not believe that race had anything to do with it. Admittedly, I do not know what is in his heart as far as racial issues go, but I do know that he has claimed to have read Obama's proposed health care bill twice (all 1,000 pages of it) and that he says it does include health care subsidies for illegal immigrants. I believe that when he heard President Obama telling the American people that it did not contain any such subsidies, he was so overwhelmed with frustration at what he saw as a blatant lie that he yelled the now famous line, "You lie!". Whether it was appropriate or not, I wish it would stimulate discussion on the health care bill instead of on Jimmy Carter's accusation of racism.

Thoughts on Obama's Speech to Students

Green, Andy. “Obama Speech to Students.” The Baltimore Sun. The Baltimore Sun, September 8, 2009. Web. September 8, 2009 <http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/2009/09/obama_speech_to_students.html>.

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Andy Green is on the editorial board of the Baltimore Sun. In his September 8, 2009 editorial, he expressed his views about the controversy over President Obama’s speech to students. The speech was broadcast in schools throughout the country. Due to controversy, some schools chose not to show the speech and some parents kept their children from hearing it. Green believes that those who stirred up the controversy should feel “silly” but doubts that they do. He points out that President Obama’s speech actually had nothing controversial in it. The speech was a straightforward speech on the value of hard work and staying in school. Andy Green blames the controversy on two things. One, he says, is the “hysterical political fringe” element of society that believes that President Obama is out to “destroy traditional American values.” The other, he says, is the “cowardice of school officials who bow to pressure from extremists.” Andy Green sees no justification for the controversy in President Obama’s speech. He is obviously a very strong supporter of Obama and he says near the end of the article that he believes that Obama might be the greatest president there has ever been.

I do not agree with Andy Green that the controversy is “silly” but I also do not agree with the parents who kept their children from hearing the speech. It is appropriate for school children to hear the president speak, after all, he is the elected leader of our country and students should be taught to respect the office of the president. However, I do not agree with much of Obama’s political ideology and would not want him using schools as a platform to influence young people’s thinking on controversial issues. When parents heard that the speech was going to be one hour long and did not know what the specific content was going to be, I believe they were justified in wondering if the president might take advantages of his young and impressionable audience to slip in some of his political agenda. The fact that the original plan was to have students write an essay called “How I Can Help the President” created more uneasiness among parents. That plan was later changed. Much of the controversy probably could have been avoided if the transcript of the speech had been posted earlier than one day prior to the broadcast. Maybe people would have realized that it was an appropriate speech, and they would not have had such a negative reaction.