I got this e-mail today from a friend. After I got it, I spent an hour and a half carefully typing a reply. First you will see a photo, then the LONG right-wing commentary under the photo, and then, my reply.
This is the e-mail I received:
First there was this photo,
then the following message:
I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing.
Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs,
while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?
In my own dealings with the wealthy and powerful, I have always found that the way to quickly capture the moral essence of a person is to watch how they treat those who are less powerful. Do they understand that the others are also human beings with feelings? Especially when they think nobody is looking?
I think this photo constitutes another major Obama blunder.
As some commentators point out, this picture becomes a metaphor for ObamaCare. The elderly are left in the back, with only the kindness of the Crowleys of the world, the stand-up guys, to depend on. The government has other priorities.
One of the major subtexts of the health care debate involves the public's fear of indifferent, powerful bureaucrats ruling their lives. It is one thing to wait in line at the DMV to find out which other line you should wait in, in order to begin the process of waiting for multiple bureaucrats to go through the motions of processing your request. I have spent entire afternoons going through this process.
But when we get to health care, waiting often means enduring pain and dysfunction longer than necessary, sometimes a worsening of the condition... and sometimes death.
That's why I think this image will have genuine resonance. It captures something that older Americans in particular can relate to. The President presses ahead with a program that will tell them to take painkillers instead of getting that artificial hip.
At every stage of the entire Gates affair, Obama has provided a revealing tell. The "acted stupidly" blunder revealed that he automatically blames the police and thinks they really are stupid to begin with. It didn't trigger a single alarm bell in his mind as he figured out what to say.
Then, the non-apology apology revealed an arrogant man who cannot do what honest people do: admit it when they make a mistake.
Now at stage three, the beer photo op looked OK. It didn't turn into a disaster.
But then in a small moment that nobody in the White House had the brains to understand, Obama goes and sends a body language message like this.
I think he is going to get deeper and deeper into trouble. He is no longer repeating the familiar scripts dreamed up for the campaign. He was a master performer.
But when he has to improvise, as a president must do, he lets his true character show. This helps widen the level of doubt that Obama is the same guy a majority voted for. Those doubts can only grow.
Andrew McCarthy has assembled an overwhelming case that Obama has lied about who he is. I predict that more and more Americans will become open to the argument that they have been had by a sophisticated and ruthless effort to foist a phony on America.
Perhaps the most powerful photo message Obama will ever send.
Please, pass it on!
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This is my reply:
Hi, ABC (Not her real name, LOL),
Thanks for sending the photo of President Obama, Professor Gates, and Officer Crowley. The commentary beneath the photo highlights the divisiveness of the Crowley-Gates incident. I truly do not believe that Officer Crowley was "the only class act in that incident". I also do not believe that President Obama walking one step ahead of them means that he is "arrogant". I think it means that he is the President and it is his house, and he was probably walking toward some microphones. Or maybe it has no meaning at all.
I do think it was a very nice gesture that Officer Crowley was helping Professor Gates down the stairs. Professor Gates was born with a club foot and walks with a cane. When Officer Crowley first hancuffed Professor Gates in his own house, he handcuffed him with his hands behind his back, and Professor Gates could not walk at all without his cane. So Officer Crowley had to re-handcuff Professor Gates with his hands in front of him, so he could walk with his cane. This is how Officer Crowley became aware of Professor Gates's disability and his need for a cane.
It is interesting to me that the words beneath the photo are so vindictive and mean. Wow. I first looked at the photo and thought: "This is a great example of how President Obama is such a great healer and how he brings people together. He can get warring factions to get together and listen to each other." Then I read the commentary and realized that the photo and the occasion had been twisted and spun to justify the agenda of right wing extremists. Wow. The writer was really on a roll. He even got off into Medicare, Medicaid, and waiting in line at the DMV.
I think that our country is really getting polarized, and I find it very sad. I try to listen to both sides. I drive in my car a lot, and sometimes I like to listen to talk radio just to see what is being said. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Rusty Humphries, Laura Ingraham.....I listen to them all. Sometimes I cannot listen for long, that is sure. I disagree with them, but I listen to them. I notice a similar pattern in all of them. They are all very negative and they are all paranoid. They all believe that someone is "out to get them". The government is "out to get them". The country is "going down the drain". "They are getting screwed and so are you, and you should wake up and protest." "They are angry and you should be angry too." These shows get a lot of people angry. That is their business, and that is what they do. It is their "schtick". It is what they sell. Anger. And they are being successful in their mission of stirring up a lot of anger. Fortunately the majority of Americans do not listen to these shows, thank goodness. But the shows are becoming especially divisive, and I think it is sad for us as a unified country.
The Gates-Crowley incident was remarkable. Professor Gates, a black man, was arrested in his own house for mouthing off to a white police officer after he had produced identification and proved that he was in his own house. The First Ammendment gives us freedom of speech. We can say anything we want in our own house. The people who are criticizing Professor Gates are glossing over this fact. What if Professor Gates had been white and Officer Crowley had been black? What if a black police office had arrested a white man in his own home for exercising his First Ammendment rights? Would the right wing of our country be supporting the black police officer? No, they would not. They would be saying "A man's home is his castle. A man can say whatever he wants in his own home."
When Officer Crowley filled out his report on the arrest, he stated that he received a 9-1-1 call from a woman who stated that she saw "2 black men breaking into a house". When the tape of the 9-1-1 call was made public, it revealed that the caller said she was calling on behalf of a neighbor who had seen the break-in; she did not see it herself. The 9-1-1 operator specifically asked her about the race of the people who broke in and she specifically said she did not know. So therefore, Officer Crowley, the "class act", falsified his police report and injected race into the incident from the beginning.
Also, from the time the 9-1-1 call was placed until the time of the arrest was a span of only 6 minutes. Pretty fast, I would say. It seems clear to me that Officer Crowley arrived at a house where there was a reported break-in, then found a black man inside who showed identification that he was indeed the legal resident of the house, then became angry that a black man was being "uppity" and yelling at him, then created a ruse to trick the black man to step out onto the porch, whereupon he then arrested him for creating a "public disturbance". All in 6 minutes. Not enough time for Officer Crowley to calm down, think clearly, get his own adrenaline down and take his own pulse.
So, no, I do not think Office Crowley was the only class act in the photo. I do not think President Obama is arrogant. In fact, I have read both of President Obama's books, and have shaken his hand and Michelle's hand, and they are not arrogant. They are both very down to earth people. I voted for him and will do so proudly again in 2012. President Obama is a smart and decent man who is doing the very best to bring our country back from the brink of financial disaster, that was caused by dishonest and greedy financial people working on an unregulated Wall Street, and caused by two wars, one of which was against Iraq which had nothing to do with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, by the way. That's another story, and I will not get started on that.
President Obama also wants healthcare to be affordable to all Americans. Too many Americans cannot afford insurance and are having to do without it. President Obama watched his own mother battle with insurance companies while she was dying of cancer. He has NOT submitted a plan to Congress, because he wants Congress to make the plan. There is no "Obamacare". It is a figment of the right wing imagination. It is a distortion and an untruth. He does not want to replace people's doctors. He does not want to replace people's insurance policies. However he has pointed out that insurance premiums have gone up and up and up and up and they show no sign of stopping. Insurance companies deny care to patients and payment to doctors millions of times every day. This is how they make money, and they are rich, rich, rich. Insurance companies drop people from coverage all the time when they develop diseases by calling it a "pre-existing condition". When they drop you, you have no appeal. Then you have no insurance. Then you cannot buy a new policy because now you DO have a pre-existing condition, and no company will take you with a pre-existing condition. Thank goodness, I will never have to worry about this because I have lifetime military health insurance, which can never "drop" me. It is the best of the best of the best. And guess what. It is government healthcare. I make an appointment at our local military hospital, and that is free, procedures are free, medicines are free, and hospitalizations only cost the cost of the meals. It is a service-related benefit because I wore our country's uniform for 22 years. It is a well-run system.
Sorry to run on and on, with a long note, but the commentary under the photo really struck a nerve in me, and I had to respond. Before we joined the XYZ Church, we belonged to a very small church. Everyone else was very right-wing and made right-wing comments all the time and assumed everyone agreed with them. I kept my mouth shut and did not speak up to voice my own beliefs. I did not feel very good about that either. When we joined XYZ, I thought "I will not ever do that again. I will speak up and voice my opinions when other people voice their opinions. I will not remain silent and let people assume that I just agree with them." I am much happier now. "To thine ownself be true."
I do know that there are all types of political opinions at our church. Both right wing and left wing. And that is fine with me. It really is. I do not care, as long as there is not pressure to get me to believe a certain way, politically. I know from talking to our pastor's wife that our pastor is very careful to avoid politics, because we have such a wide diversity of views in our church. That is fine with me. I have an Obama sticker on my car, and sometimes I park next to a car with a McCain sticker. That is fine. What I like about our church is exactly the fact that there IS so much diversity and that I CAN park in the parking lot with an Obama sticker on my car, and no one will be out there at my car after church to talk to me about my sins and how I need to change my political views.
In that spirit, I just wanted to share my view with you, since you shared your view with me.