I think it is time for real change.   Who cares if you are racists ?  That is your problem.  To thine own-self be true.  The rest of us are moving forward to a better life and not trying to go backward.   I know the horse and buggy days were good back with our founding forefathers but the best is yet to come.

I know you want to relive the Boston Tea Party but that is so yesterday. After all 95% of the people got their taxes lowered and you really do have representation.   You know like old Joe Wilson .  Oh what about that wealth redistribution well we have been doing that since the tax code was developed- but most people give the credit to President Obama even though he was not even born yet.  But oh well.

What are the tea baggers protesting?  Oh yeah Health Care - that pesky government wants to make sure that insurance companies give us a fair shake.  But you want the insurance companies to take your money and stand between you and your doctor.

Oh please stop insulting our Canadian Neighbors by denigrating their health care.  Most Canadians say they like it but you seem to insist that you know someones grandmother who lives in Canada and its sort of like a death panel- they have to wait so long for care.  

I just hope President Obama will listen to 70% of the people instead of the 30%.  

Margo,

I, like Sherrie, feel as though you have misrepresented a large number of people who do not like Obama’s policies. You call us racists and then later come back and say that there might be just a segment of those who disagree with him who are racists. Let me ask you this; do you think there might be just a segment of the African American population who voted for Obama just because Obama is black, knowing nothing about his ideology or policy-making agenda? I am a nurse and was in a graduate program for a higher degree during the season of campaign, and there were some women who were supposedly intelligent women that said they were going to vote for Hillary because she is a woman. To me that is unbelievable, so any one of those three categories signifies the ignorance of the voting public. 

There is a growing number of people who are concerned about the direction Obama is taking this country and disagree with his methods and policies. I am one of those and I am NOT a racist. Admittedly, I have not lived in their skin and cannot possibly know what they may have had to live with because they are black. I do not deny racism does not exist but that doesn’t mean everyone who disagrees with them disagrees because of their color. There are so many prejudices in the world it is hard to know who you are offending these days. On one blog, I hurt one black man’s feelings by saying I found Colin Powell to be more qualified to be president than Obama. He felt that was a racist thing to say. But to me, what I said had nothing to do with racism. I do not refer to Obama as a black man. I refer to him as president.

Many who are marching and trying to speak up are like me have never been politically involved, never marched, and never made a political speech, but they have also never seen such radical changes being made in our government, the way our country is heading, and they are trying to make a difference because they don’t like it. Huge bills are presented to Congress that are written by non legislative persons and/or only by partisan participation. These bills are to be passed in record speed with record-setting spending without being read and this sets up an atmosphere of distrust. Anyone should wonder what is in the bill that requires such expediency and is too big to read. Some bills are passed in the secrecy of darkness and when transparency is promised this way of politics is not trusted. We cannot possibly stay informed and it scares a lot of people who could care less what color the president is. All presidents receive criticism, but when this president does, the race card is quickly used! For the most part, those who are showing up at the "tea parties" and marching on Washington, are those who are concerned about how this president interprets the Constitution and how those interpretations can and will change this country forever in a way that builds fear. For some strange reason, when conservatives march to show how they feel it is unAmerican, but when others with another cause, lets say illegal immigrants, it is considered exercizing their Constituitonal rights. Those who are racists aren’t the ones marching.

I could care less about Obama’s color but I do feel strongly about the direction he wants this country to change. I strongly dislike how he has extended the power of the executive branch. It started with Bush, but Obama is taking it much, much further. To disagree with policy making and to observe who the President listens too for direction does not make anyone a racist, it makes them more aware and shows they care about our country. Furthermore, the president himself said that we are to judge him by those who he surrounds himself with, and that is what scares me and most others. The czar movement itself is frightening. The person I see as president of the United States always believes in The Constitution to which he/she promised to protect and defend and remembers he/she serves the people of America.

I find your remarks entirely insulting and just because dementia has creeped up on Carter, doesn’t give others license to repeat such ridulous accusations. It sounded racist and stupid coming from him and it sounds the same coming from you. I try to be an open minded person and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Some say I trust too much but I believe most people try to do the right thing. Your characterization of people who watch Fox News and who disagree with you and the president as racist and essentially stupid, is really a closed minded thing to do. You judge widely on something you know nothing about. Thank goodness most people watch Fox News because they cover more news items than other "mainstream" news channels, therefore, I feel we are more informed. I suppose that is why they have the highest ratings. When the news broke about Obama’s favorite community service program ACORN, even Jon Stewart wanted to know where the rest of the media was.

It simply amazes me that everyone who is well known, or a celebrity of sorts is ready to insult those who don’t live your world or lifestyle. You assume that no intelligent person could possibly understand what is going on, though it is really quite the opposite. You and other celebrities don’t have a clue how the rest of the world lives. What the government does directly affects our lives. Higher taxes is but a drop in the bucket for you and other celebrities. Programs that increase taxes and inflation, cause higher food and fuel costs, and changes the content of our childrens’ education are important to the all of us. So our places in life, our positions at work, and the businesses we try to keep open, affects our political affiliation and position. It is not about race, but about right and wrong and much of what Obama proposes will force many small businesses to go under. I know this, I have never worked for someone who was poorer than me. I want companies to excell so the world keeps  spinning for those of us who have to work for others for a living. I think we actually may have good ideas, as we try to make ends meet, being parents of children without the help of a nanny, playing taxi cab, going to PTO meetings, and alas, making and meeting the mediocre budget for our families, where we all KNOW that you can’t spend more money than you make, something Congress and the president have yet to learn. For us, it is simply common sense, and for someone like you to tell me that I am a racist because I disagree with the policies of this president really shows your ignorance. If the contributors on this website are all as narrow minded as you, then I too will check out with Sherrie!

I guess if I am prejudiced about anyone, it might be toward those in Hollywood and the periphery of that world. They like you, don’t live in the real world but are the first to sling accusations as you did in this letter.

The way our government works is that a bill moves from the House or Senate through Congress onto the President’s desk to be signed into law.  I see no protestors targeting Congress with attacks they’re taking it straight to the President.  Yes, he wants the reform and ran promising to address healthcare. He was elected by a majority of voters unlike some other presidents. Yet, somehow the protestors think he is working outside the will of the majority of American people.  He isn’t! he promised to do this we voted for him.

It is just that the protestors are louder and with their ridiculous internet email they send are getting people scared and riled up.  Does anyone believe that Southerners were willing to die to keep people in slavery or did the rebel rousers use issues important to Southerners to whip people into a frenzy? Dear Lord, why don’t people teach history in this country it is so important!

There is one email that ‘jokingly’ claims Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma can legally secede from the United States.  Now, that would be silly if I didn’t know the person who sent it and that a Texas congressman had referenced secession on television a few months back.

At this point, it doesn’t even become about President Obama, or healthcare, or even whether the people reading this are racist… it becomes about what extremism is doing to our country. Can you connect the dots?

I couldn’t possibly agree more with Margo, and have been telling those in my family the very same thing.  I don’t have time, right now, to read all the letters in this thread, but the fact that I skimmed through the first half a dozen posts and each and every one was a discussion of the President’s ‘blackness’ or ‘whiteness’ , or combination thereof, appears to me, at least, to make her point even more on the money.  Last, Why on earth are people getting this close to OUR President with guns?  And why are they not being locked up? 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, reading some of these posts is like being a bystander at one of those televised rallies! Amazing.

What you people are doing as it relates to Margo’s article and her responses to some of your posts, is EXACTLY what people are doing to President Carter’s words about race….twisting them to fit the narrative you want to make.

SHE DID NOT say that all Republicans, all those who attend these rallies and Joe Wilson are racist! What part of that don’t you people get? I’m going to give you all the benefit of the doubt and assume you are all intelligent well informed Americans. You have seen the news reports, read the stories, seen the photos, there are White Americans portraying President Obama in offensive manners.

Set aside the fact that you disagree with his policies and administration and think and look at the actions of these people on their face value, why are you choosing to defend them? 

Most of you are coming across as "I’m not a racist I just don’t like his policy, I don’t like big government and I don’t like all the spending that is taking place"  Okay but what about the fact that people are depicting your president as a monkey? "That has nothing to do with me….like I was saying….I hate big government and I’m afraid of where he is leading our country!"

You are all completely missing the point! What does bringing a gun to a political rally have to do with the argument of healthcare reform? Answer that. Nothing right? But of course none of you care about that because you’re not the one’s bringing the loaded gun to the event so you don’t care. WHY DON’T YOU CARE? 

You are all clueless!