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Cameron Peterson carries a poster showing an altered photo of President Barack Obama as he walks past a man who supports health care reform at a health care town hall meeting in Alhambra, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
After presenting him with the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Barack Obama is hugged by Sidney Poitier, the Bahamian actor known for breaking racial barriers and the first black man to win an Academy Award as best actor, at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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President Barack Obama presents a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rev. Joseph Lowery who has been a leader of the civil rights movement since the 1950s, and co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, in the East Room of the the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Commentary
Today, the nation was wracked with tense debates over the President’s health care reform bill, meanwhile, away from all of the debate, President Obama was handing out awards. These weren’t just any typical awards, they were the Medal of Freedom: the highest civilian award given in the United States. As I absorbed the conflict that spreads across the country regarding health care reform, and reflected upon the claims, fears, and remarks made by all those involved.
I thought of how President Obama is being likened to Adolf Hitler and the H.R. 3200 health care reform bill, being compared with setting the stage for Nazi Germany. Health care reform took a racial turn as well. Georgia Representative David Scott went to work Monday, only to find a swastika defaced the congressional sign outside his office. Another swastika was displayed on his front door. To prove the claims that he is being racially attacked, he has publicly displayed emails that he’s received. In these emails, he is repeatedly referred to as a N_____.
Yet, today, with all of the talk about racism, Nazi Germany, and socialism, I saw the face of a different America. During the Medal of Freedom Ceremony, today, I saw Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic, Indian, Gay and Lesbian, women, and the disabled. I didn’t see the workings of a government that suppresses those of different skin colors, ethnic heritages, or cultures, but one that embraced each other not in spite of their differences, but rather for their differences. Surely, it is the differences that those honored today have encountered throughout their lives that helped shape them into being the leaders they are.
Is this the face of Nazi Germany? To honor civil rights leaders at the White House? Is this the face of a government that plans to set up death panels and exterminate those who others deem unfit? Surely, Adolf Hitler would have had no use for the honorees gathered at the White House today. Would Hitler have honored those who President Obama selected today? However, if you listen to the cries coming from recent protests, this is the face of the new Nazi America? Surely there would be no purpose in such a hideous and oppressive society for the disabled, the gay, the lesbian, the elderly, women, Hispanics, and African Americans.
As shouts of protests monopolized the media and spread across Google like wildfire, I wept. I wept that I could see the day when Sidney Poitier and Reverend Joseph Lowery, these two civil rights champions and pioneers, stood at the platform of the White House, and were both embraced by the first black President. President Obama and Nazi Germany, are you serious?
Today was a historic day, in two aspects. The first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice was honored at the White House, followed by 16 honorees who represented a change, a change that is equality in race, gender, and ethnicity, not one that oppresses, or seeks to kill or destroy.
I would have loved to have heard Sidney Poitier or Reverend Joseph Lowery share their experience. It must have been a dream come true; to have lived in America during a time when Jim Crow laws ruled the land, and to have stood at the White House to receive the highest civilian honor, from the first African American president.
This is not the face of Nazi Germany; it is the realization of Martin Luther King’s dream.
More U.S. Headline News
- Medal of Freedom Photos and Slideshow Part 1
- Medal of Freedom photos, slideshow, and video part 2
- Medal of Freedom Ceremony with President Obama Video
- Presidential Medal of Freedom to be awarded to 16 recipients today
- Sonia Sotomayor Reception hosted by President and Michelle Obama
- AARP on board with Health Care Reform Bill? Not so fast, they say.
- Rep. David Scott hate crime victim over health care reform bill
- Town Hall or Town Hell: Protester condemns Senator Arlen Spector to hell during town hall meeting
- President Obama live town hall in New Hampshire
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Rosemary Kennedy, and the Special Olympics: The Legacy of a Humanitarian
- Chevy Volt to get 230 mpg
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies at 88
- Health Care Bill H.R. 3200 Read it Now
- GM and Ebay begin selling cars online today
- Health Care Reform gets a Reality Check
Comments
I find it kind of shocking actually that people don't realize the reason the Nazis and Hitler were evil was because they were racists. Their goal was to strengthen the German race by creating a master race of Aryans (white, blond hair, blue eyes). Today these white supremacists are called Neo-Nazis.
Whoever wrote that header should lose his job. Seriously: 'President Obama Nazi'? At best that is completely misleading about the ideas in this article. At worst it is attempting to obscure a positive message about Obama in favour of making damaging insinuations about Obama in the minds of everyone who casually scans the site or only sees the header link to this article on another page. Sort it out.
Hi Gabriel,
Thanks for your comment. The title "President Obama Nazi' is in reference to the posters and images of President Obama dressed like a Nazi and others where he has been edited to look like Hitler, with mustache included."
I chose not to post those images or include them with the article, but maybe the title would have been clearer if I had included them. Instead, I decided to show the pictures of civil rights leaders being honored, rather than President Obama depicted as a Nazi.
The images and posters are showing up in cities and communities as well as in town hall meetings (those that allow posters and signs that is.)The poster of Barack Obama as a joker has now been edited to show swastikas, SS, and Hitler's hair style as well as identifying mustache.
Um Ok Gabriel Casey, seriously get a life.
The reason it was titled "President Obama Nazi" clearly to attract those against Obama and make them realize that he is not a new Hitler!!! That article rocked my socks off so get a life, and you say people just scan over these articles and read the headers but you have no place to talk because you clearly read this article, and clearly understand the meaning. So keep your unnecessary and illiterate comments to yourself.
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