Give'em the finger

I'm learning how to use the social media for column ideas. Lately, I'll keep an eye on Twitter to see what's trending. Also, I'll put something on Facebook and see if I get a reaction or two. I think of it like I think of my column- I could care less whether someone agrees with me or not. I just want to be interesting. If I can make someone so happy or so mad that they want to read my column again next week, then I've done my job. It's that simple.
Last week, I posted something on Facebook about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer pointing her finger in the face of President Barack Obama. I'm sure you've all seen it by now, if you haven't you can Google it. The President stepped off of Air Force 1, the Arizona Governor was there to meet him, and sparks flew.
All I said was no matter if you are Republican or Democrat, male or female, white or black- if you put your finger in the President's face, you deserve to have it broken. And boy, did I get just the reaction I was looking for.
Some people agreed with me, others made it clear that if Mr. Obama was burning they wouldn't take the time to put him out. And one girl who is ten times smarter than me wrote something so long and so over my head that I finally just stopped reading because it was making me feel dumber.
I'm not a huge Barack Obama fan. I'm not in favor of his health care program, and every time he extends the unemployment benefits I want to scream. I think if you haven't found a job in almost three years, you're being a little picky on what you're looking for.
But I'll tell you this- the way that people disrespect the man and the office in which he holds is almost enough to make me back him. No other president- and I promise you, there have been worse- has been this disrespected so many times. Right from the beginning, during his first State of the Union address, someone yelled out "You lie" while he was talking. Right there, in front of millions of t.v. viewers. Can you imagine if someone had yelled like that while George Bush Sr. were addressing the nation?
He's had his Christianity questioned. I'd be willing to bet that not one of the 43 previous presidents had it rumored that they were Muslim. First of all, not all Muslim fly airplanes in to buildings and are bad people. That's like saying all Catholic priests molest little boys, or all Baptist preachers pay homosexual men in drugs to massage them. Secondly, one day people were in an uproar over what Obama's preacher had said in church one Sunday. The next day, they were calling him a Muslim. Make up your minds, is he a Muslim or does he go to church?
Then there was a movement led by Donald Trump of all people to make Obama prove he was even American. Say it out loud with me, folks. Donald Trump, a reality t.v. star who has gone bankrupt more than once, had the gall and the backing to convince the President of the United States to produce his birth certificate. How embarrassing and disgusting. And the worst part is, Trump had the whole Republican party on his side.
And now he's got some crazy lady in a terrible pant suit shaking her finger in his face in public. It just so happens, she was also promoting a book in which she mentions an earlier meeting with him at the White House. Minutes after the meeting she said he had been cordial and attentive. In the book she wrote he was rude and arrogant. You decide for yourself it that was a coincidence or not.
And for those who defend Governor Brewer or still think I'm overreacting to this, I want you to think back on when the Dixie Chicks were at a concert overseas and spoke out against the war and George W. Bush. Oh my God, people went crazy. They couldn't believe how those girls spoke out against America. They hated soldiers. Other rednecks were blasting them on award shows. People were smashing their CDs in the streets. It was chaos. And all they did was speak their minds, not wag fingers in faces.
Now look, I know most politicians are slimy. I've never met a politician that didn't feel just a little greasy to me, Republican or Democrat. And I know that both sides of Congress is a joke and a waste of taxpayer money. But the office of the President- whether it is filled with Bill Clinton and his many mistresses, George W. and his goofy faces and remedial reading skills, or Barack Obama and all his problems- I still feel should be respected. If you have a problem with his politics, that's fine. Just don't make everything so personal.
And don't shake your damn finger in his face.