Obama Citizenship

?Birthers? versus True Extremists

By Phil

It has been brought to my attention by certain individuals that I ought to address whatever role that Mr. James W. von Brunn — the gunman who is said to be affiliated with white-supremacist web sites and had apparently posted on FreeRepublic.com (Google cache) about the eligibility saga — has with “birthers,” the predominantly pejorative term used to describe those who question this President’s eligibility.

At the start, I very much agree with Jeff Schreiber of at AmericasRight.com — that everyone needs to maintain proper discourse when having discussions about these kinds of events. Obviously I don’t have a problem tackling controversial issues on my blog; I get thousands of daily readers concerning eligibility, an issue that seemingly everyone knows about but nobody really wants to seriously consider, no matter the reason for such non-communication.

I’m also not going to play psychiatrist and try to “understand” or get an idea of what Mr. von Brunn was “feeling” today and what propelled those feelings to violence. After all, while most people get frustrated over certain issues, they don’t let it get to the point of committing acts of violence against the rights of other individuals and, instead, use sites such as mine and other forums across the blogosphere to vent their frustrations, regardless of political affiliation.

So, let’s get right to it, shall we?

In the first place, I categorically condemn what Mr. von Brunn did as insane, cowardly, and completely devoid of all rationality. One does not go about single-handedly righting perceived wrongs in society in this manner; we have a perfectly reasonable system of governance in this country, and if one feels as if an injustice exists, one is obligated to work the system to bring about that desired change.

Unfortunately — and as my comment threads on certain postings already give evidence — there are those in the opposition who are taking this grotesque event and essentially spinning it way out of control to suggest that since Mr. von Brunn allegedly holds views similarly to what sites like mine hold, that somehow sites like mine are promoting violence against certain segments of the population. Naturally, my response is two-fold:

1. Since there are plenty of true extremists in this world and in America who actively support what Mr. von Brunn did, I neither support them nor shall I speak for them;
2. Cite any posting or comment I’ve made that even remotely suggests I support these vile actions.

Further, it should be remembered — as I briefly mentioned, above — that the term, “birther” originated as a negative pejorative by the opposition solely for the means of attempting to diminish any individual who chooses to question this President’s eligibility with the potential for possessing a legitimate opinion.

Here’s what all of this comes down to:

Holding an opinion that is contrary to the perspective of those currently in the majority in no way makes that minority opinion a crime.

Did you get that? To suggest that a true extremist who is allegedly a Nazi and white supremacist who goes about shooting people is absolutely equivalent to anyone who holds a view that is contrary to the views of a given politician in office is to entertain sheer, unadulterated insanity and is completely devoid of rationality. To put it another way, it would be as if to say that all individuals who strongly support the 2nd Amendment really want to do nothing but go shoot other innocent individuals purely for the sport thereof. I think any reasonable person can see the vacuous fallacy of this argument, by definition.

All that so-called “birthers” are doing is asking a question: Is Barack Hussein Obama eligible to hold the office of the presidency? If certain crazed gunmen are asking the same question, and it’s only that gunman who’s going about acting like a true extremist, then it is only that gunman who is breaking the law, not the “birther” who is merely posing a question. To proceed further down this path of practical illogic would be akin to saying that a gunman who happens to be [insert favorite race, ethnicity, belief, etc. here] must mean that anyone else who holds to the same [insert favorite race, ethnicity, belief, etc. here] is obviously going to embark on the same path. Again, this is sheer nonsense, on the face of it.

The above is my take on the situation, and I appreciate those in the opposition who have asked whether or not I would cover this politically-charged story. I have no problems in doing so, and would request that comments on this posting remain civil, whether or not you happen to agree with me.

To see what the eligibility saga is really all about, take a look at the widget, “Who is Barack Hussein Obama?” to the right at the top of my sidebar.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).