Name-calling

I saw an interesting, and discouraging, video on CNN.com today. It addressed the problem some people have with Barak Obama. Some get Obama confused with Osama. Others point out that his middle name is Hussein, which is the last name of Saddam Hussein. Therefore, because Barak Obama is so similar to Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein he will have trouble getting elected.

What?

When I was four or five I thought all people named Johnson, Smith, Jones, etc., were related. As a Kolocotronis, that was very credible to me because I am related, in some way or another, to all others named Kolocotronis. (Though many of them, I'm sure, would like to disown the member of their family who chose to follow the same religion as those "dirty Moslem Turks." I think that's how my great uncle put it.) However, some Americans seem to believe that all Muslims who share the same names have the same (evil) intentions.

For all of my fellow Americans who still don't know where Iraq is even though they can recite every known fact about Britney Spears and company, I have a few factual reminders:

1. Obama is not Osama.

2. There are thousands, possibly millions of men named Osama--or, alternatively, Osamah or Usama. Do you really believe they are all evil?

3. There are probably millions of men named Hussein, after the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

4. There are over one billion Muslims in the world. If we really wanted to destroy non-Muslims, we would have done it by now. All we want is to live peacefully and be allowed to raise our families and practice our faith.

5. Islam has no more kooks than Christianity does--or any other religious or ethnic group.

6. As Will Rogers said, "Don't believe everything you read in the papers." (Will Rogers was an American humorist of the 1920s, for those of you who don't know much about history.)

Is that it? I think it will do for now.

I believe Barak Obama is a very capable man who would make a fine president. I also believe he will not be elected. And it's not just because of his name--in fact, I think this whole name thing is an intentional diversion. He will probably never be president of the United States because he is black and America is not ready for a black president. I don't know if we ever will be.

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Footnote--Have you noticed that America is far behind countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, which have already had women leaders. And we are far behind South Africa, where a mixed race society elected a black leader. So much for progress.