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.
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