There is No Way to Satisfy Bigotry

A member of the armed forces recently made news by refusing to obey an order sent to him by the Commander-in-Chief to deploy to Afghanistan. He claimed that it was not a legitimate order because he did not recognize President Obama as the legitimate President or Commander-in-Chief. His rationale was that an original birth certificate confirming his American citizenship had not bee shown to the American people.

Never mind that this has now become a moot point with all sane people who have even gone so far as research the subject and come up with more than sufficient evidence to support Barack Obama having been born in Hawaii of an American mother. The announcement was in the newspapers at the time as well. This never satisfied that group of nonbelievers known as birthers, for whom there could never be sufficient proof.

Despite a season of birthers popping up every once in a while during the past year, it still might have been enough to draw the attention of the press that he was a soldier refusing to obey orders from someone he asserted not to be his Commander. But eyebrows were raised higher upon learning than this soldier is also a physician.

When the story was given airtime, what puzzled me most is the assumption that because this officer is a doctor, he is somehow endowed with intelligence or indeed even good sense, never mind sanity. Obviously the press have not met enough doctors! Nonetheless, one thing has become clear to me during the past year and half.

There is no way some of the people in this country, no matter how much or how little education they have, will accept a black man as Commander-in-Chief. Their prejudices have been etched in stone, and so it appears that this army doctor would rather plug his ears and scream about a birth certificate than actually acknowledge any document that could be shown to him. He would still reject it.

These birthers, or perhaps racist is a more accurate name for them, attempt to fabricate some rationalization for their rejection of Obama as President, but the fact remains that no one can offer convincing proof to them because they don’t want to be convinced. Perhaps they believe they can get him out of office. It is a foolish belief, and I hope it isn’t dangerous.

This doctor should be court-martialed and face the consequences of being a traitor to his country, as his refusal to follow the orders of his Commander-in-Chief not only constitutes treason but is an embarrassment to us all. Any person who rejects a legitimately elected president has no defense. Scalia didn’t anoint this one. A great majority of voters elected Obama in a legal national election, and the country, as in most of our history, should come together and work for the good of the nation.

Perpetuating the racism that has already done so much damage to our nation is contemptible. Why not apply all that energy to working for something worthwhile such as getting kids to stay in school, and get an education, since it appears out nation is no longer the world leader in young educated people! From some of the reactions of the past year, I would say that a good number of our citizens need to go back to school.