Hate Mail

Every time I receive a forwarded e-mail message that once again has as its aim to denigrate the person who is currently serving as President of our nation, I have two reactions. First, I am angry. Second, I am sad. I am sad that people forward messages that often are SPAM, based on falsehood—and this can be verified by simply going to the Internet and searching on the topic of the message—and that they do so without questioning the validity of the information they are forwarding. I received another of those from someone in my home state of Texas. The purpose of the message is to question Mr. Obama’s patriotism because he was not at Arlington Cemetery for Memorial Day in 2010. If it’s not his origin of birth or his religion, it’s his patriotism. Or something else that people—most who want to wave the banner of “Christianity”—foolishly promote. I immediately went to the Internet. And, not to my surprise, there it was on

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/memorialday.asp

The information on Snopes lays out clearly for anyone who is interested in fact regarding the record of U. S. Presidents and their presence or lack of presence at Arlington on Memorial Day for the last 30 years. Read for yourself.

I sent the following message to my relative in Texas—someone I have had little contact with since we were growing up, but also someone who I like—because I felt compelled to honor the truth:

I am sending the following link because I believe in fairness, regardless of political persuasion. The messages—many of which are spam—circulated about Barack Obama since before his election are too often misrepresenting and offensive. I get them from family, friends, and even casual friends. It's interesting. None of the people I know who share my own moderate to liberal sentiments ever circulate messages—spam or otherwise—about the people on the right. I'll say it again. I believe in fairness. The attached link to CBS news is an article about that very matter—fairness—and specifically about Mr. Obama's whereabouts on the day in question. I know that there are many who simply want our current president to fail—regardless of what his failure means to our nation. And yet these people claim to be patriots, and yes, "Christian". The silliness about Mr. Obama's birth, his religion, his patriotism—and I guess the list could go on—should have ended long ago. Yet, for some it continues. I find this sad, and as someone with a Christian upbringing by parents who always taught us to be fair and respectful, I find it even sadder that people who call themselves "Christian" feel some need to benefit at the expense of others. This is indeed NOT the message of the New Testament Gospels.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20006346-503544.html

Namaste.

Hate Mail—Albuquerque, New Mexico (August 20, 2011)

R. Harold Hollis