Say It Ain’t So, Joe
Shoutin' Joe Wilson
It’s getting more and more embarassing to even talk about politics lately since the politicians are behaving worse than grade school children, but there’s no avoiding Joe Wilson’s remarks toward President Obama at the lunch or dinner table today. If you didn’t watch the speech last night and haven’t read any headlines yet, Joe Wilson (Republican Representative from South Carolina) shouted “You lie!” during the presidential address while Obama told the public that illegal immigrants will NOT be eligible for any kind of proposed universal health care. There are two main issues at stake here worth talking about.
The first issue is the total lack of respect by adults we have elected to represent us. Regardless of the political party, politicians are elected to hold a higher standard but have often sunk lower than our worst citizens. Yesterday it was the Republicans acting like children, but tomorrow it might be the Democrats. What I found far worse than Wilson’s shout out1 was the premeditated decision by some members of Congress to bring in signs or purposely feign interest in the message. It’s not a baseball game, it’s a speech by the President of the United States. Questioning an authority figure is acceptable – in fact, it is our RIGHT – but knowing when to do it separates adults from children.
The next issue is the semantics of the statement in question. Despite the childish behavior from the audience, it would be nice for a little clarification or detail on any statement by a politician, President included. Stating that illegal immigrants will not receive healthcare benefits may be true, but one of Obama’s major priorities since accepting the office has been to quickly legalize millions of illegal immigrants2 with little paperwork, so his comment last night needed some qualification. It’s the same as refusing a man named Peter into the Men Named Frank Club only to officially change Peter’s name to Frank and let him in.
The sooner both sides stop trying to fool the public, the sooner trust can be regained.
Read on:
WSJ.com – President Makes His Pitch
NYTimes.com – Obama to Push Immigration Bill as One Priority (from 4/8/09)
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