Posted By RichC on January 21, 2013
Our nation has come a long way in race relations in my lifetime in large part due to Martin Luther King Jr., a 1960’s era civil rights leader 
that we remember and celebrate with a national holiday today. Considering the United States has come “a long way” since slavery and segregation, we … and the media … still ends up differentiation each other by traits other than “our character.”
I’m acrimonious when reading comments regarding business or political issues made based on race, religion or gender (“the first black president”, “the cabinet doesn’t have enough diversity,” “can’t vote for a Mormon,” etc), and wondering when we as a nation will get beyond these insignificant differences? At what point can we comfortably treat each other as equal and differentiate based on qualifications, political philosophy and character?
Maybe we can be more like the NFL? On the playing field this past weekend, Altlanta, San Francisco, Baltimore and New England brought their best (and only two can move on to the Superbowl – Baltimore and San Francisco) … little was made of either teams diversity, religion or race. There were no complaints that teams were all male, or that Hispanics weren’t equally represented. The color of skin had little to do with how players, coaches or owners ran the business or played the game – success and achievement lead to decision making.
I’d like to think the same “blindness” could go into politics on this Presidential Inauguration Day — but think it is already too late as it should have been on election day. Success and achievement should be paramount, whether electing a president or congressional representative, or a president filling advisory positions in a cabinet. BUT aided by the continued push for political correctness … too many Americans focus on traits that have little bearing on a persons ability to lead. In the case of our current president, his lack of leadership is harming our country. Certainly he was not as qualified a Hillary Clinton four years and even after four years did 
not gain the qualities needed to repair America – much based on his own poor leadership. It was obvious to most that he was elevated based not on his qualification and experience or even “quality of his character” … but his ability to divide and conquer. I’d suggest, at the risk of being called a racist, that Obama most likely received some votes because of his race – 93%??? (CNN November 2012 vote breakdown to the right) … and yes it happened and does still happen in the reverse no doubt … just not as obvious. I find I hard to believe that any American, if they were choosing based on leadership and character, could conclude that the United States is better having President Obama in the Whitehouse for four more years rather than a Mitt Romney? Sure I’m confident American will muddle through (thanks to the way our founders set up the branches of our government), but the lack of a leader in Washington DC bringing the country together is most likely going to add another four years of slow growth and a stagnate economy … and who knows how much more debt and long term damage we’ll suffer?
Category: Holiday, Politics, Sports |
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Tags: football, inaugeration, martin luther king jr, nfl, obama
Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and biographer Jon Meacham made a few comments that had me nodding my head Monday evening in a discussion with Bill O’Reilly. I snagged a bit of audio while replaying for my wife.
