Hands Up

 

East Hampton

April 1, 2011

Dear Editor,

Do you ever want to just throw up your hands in frustration when the voices of unreason seem to be overpowering logic and common sense? That’s how I feel when I read and hear the comments of the Obama haters nationally and in this newspaper. Never mind that he is our president, elected by the people to lead the country because he presented the best case to do so. His term is not up but they come at him daily. The United Nations said George Bush’s war on Iraq was illegal, but these dopes compare that to the U.N. resolution support of a no-fly zone in Libya because that is what these Sean Hannity and Washington Times types do, they just follow the leader and lie.

Never mind that instead of getting behind him as he fights to overcome a serious financial meltdown not of his making, fights two wars he didn’t start, battles Muslim terror around the world, tries to avert a shutdown of major industries, battles a housing crisis, seeks to curb bank and Wall Street excesses, keeps our United Nations and NATO commitments viable, struggles with a proper approach to the massive unrest in North Africa, acts as referee between India and Pakistan, Palestinians and Israelis, North and South Korea, wrestles with a Japanese nuclear disaster, and Libyan civil war, all coming at him every day, these narrow-minded, power-hungry individuals and their myopic followers keep up the barrage. 

To what end? It is obvious: They don’t want him to succeed. The couldn’t care less about the country, jobs, health, or anything else. They want to deny him a second term in the face of the massive success he has had in managing all of the above better than anyone could have imagined and certainly better than a field of zeros seeking to replace him, including the idiot bankrupt casino owner with the hair. They ignore facts, disparage his abilities, insult his wife, demean him as a man, and find ways to try to just impede his agenda and deny his success. 

There are some Democrats who fail to stand up to face these scurrilous attacks and defend the president and the legislation they passed. That, of course, did not stand well in the last election. But he is our leader, he is our hope for the future. Falsely and randomly undermining both him and the office of the president is both unproductive and stupid. 

Even with the great troubled-asset relief successes, job improvement (258,000 in March), they do it anyway, and it goes on and on, thoughtlessly, and makes me wonder why this president is asked for his birth certificate, why his father and grandfather are subjects of attacks and derision, his wife put down. You figure it out; I know you, like me, really do know why! 

So sometimes I just want to throw up my hands and say “Okay, you guys, you have at it. Let’s see how you do. You screwed it up before; maybe next time will be better, but I doubt it!” Then I’ll carp from the sidelines and disrupt everything they do and see how they manage.

RICHARD P. HIGER