Our Voice

Barack Obama, in fact, is not an Arab.

Last week at a rally supporting John McCain a woman in the crowd, speaking directly to McCain, referred to Obama as an Arab.

McCain acted quickly, calling Obama a “decent family man.”
This brings two points to our attention at The Colonnade.
First of all, even if Obama were an Arab, or for that matter Muslim, why would it matter?

Second, the ignorance surrounding this presidential election is astonishing.

Back to the first point.

When did being an Arab, or a Muslim, become a bad thing? Does someone’s ethnicity or religion make them the person they are, or disqualify them from holding public office, especially that of the President of the United States of America.
The answer is no.

Voters need to realize that in this day and age a person’s ethnicity should not be an issue. Unfortunately, it still is.
There is no doubt that this country has come a long way recently.

Ten years ago the thought of having a black major party presidential nominee would have been laughable.

But, the US has apparently not come far enough along.
That brings me to point two.

Why does this ridiculous amount of ignorance still exist in a country constantly surrounded by information, especially from the media?

Anyone can get online, watch TV, or pick up a newspaper and know the facts about both candidates. Obama is a Christian, so is McCain.

Obama has now been in the public eye for a rather long time. Those who do not know his story are those who choose to read only the propaganda rooted in racism.

This propoganda has floated around, especially through e-mails and on social Web sites like MySpace.

Everyone has seen it, but sart people will dig the facts up themselves and find out the truth about these candidates.

While The Colonnade does not endorse either candidate it does strive to enform the GCSU community about the truth. We hope you will read this and understand that the facts are out there and easy to find.

So, before casting a vote, voters need to make sure they know what each candidate stands for. Not what some people want them to belive that they stand for.

Please send responses to ColonnadeLetters@gcsu.edu

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 17 2008. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry