I saw a button on Facebook's flair today that upset me, and have seen the sentiment repeated in some of my fellow conservative bloggers. It goes something like this: "We'll show him as much respect as you (or the media, or liberals) showed the last 8 years."
I know what this is referring to. For 8 years, and especially the last 2 or 3, many people's dislike for President Bush has come out in various forms of disrepect. He was insulted, not referred to by the customary 'Mr. President' or 'President Bush', but instead as 'Mr. Bush' or whatever term people chose to use. Some of this goes back to the 1992 campaign, and Former President Clinton was not always referred to respectfully by conservatives, especially.
So, apparently, the plan by some is to return insult for insult. Now, I cannot guarantee that I will always remember to use 'President Obama.' First of all, the campaigning was very much just last-name campaigning--The Obama Campaign, the McCain Campaign. (Even the Baldwin Campaign.) Most of the rhetoric from the President's camp tended to use just his last name. So, I do occasionally refer to him as 'Obama' as if he were a one-name person. (I should save that for Oprah.) However, I'm trying to do better, and remember that he is President Obama.
Why does it matter? Well, not all conservatives are Christians, but a good chunk of us claim to be. And if we are, there's something to keep in mind. Matthew 7:12. What is it? Here you go:
12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Yep, the Golden Rule. Do to others what you would have them to do. Not do to others what they have done.
If we are upset that we have not seen people show respect for the Office of the President, the answer is not to insult back. It's to show through our actions better behavior.
Do I want to see President Obama and Speaker Pelosi and Senator "Paying taxes is voluntary" Reid (yep, he said it.) turn America into a socialist state? Do I think nationalized healthcare and raising taxes on successful businesses and carbon cap and trade to raise the cost of living is a good thing?
No.
But, with apologies to Alan Alda for citing his character on behalf of the 'other side,' there's a MASH episode that speaks to this. It's one more remembered for the efforts of Hawkeye to solve the New York Times Crossword. After a session in OR cleaning up civilians wounded in an accident, the MASH crew and a Navy Admiral hear the propoganda broadcast from North Korea, where Hawkeye had just sent back a North Korean whose life he had saved. The North Koreans labeled him a 'war criminal' because they claimed he had experiment on the wounded prisoner. He hadn't, it was a lie. The admiral suggests putting out a broadcast claiming the civilians hadn't been hurt in an accident, but that the North Koreans had done it.
Hawkeye says 'They lie, we lie, where does it end?'
His point: somebody has to be better than a liar, even in a war.
Even in our country, as fragmented as we are, somebody's got to start behaving like Americans know we should, respecting people of differing viewpoints, respecting the traditions and roles that have made America great. Our country is greater than any one man, and we've got to learn that we need to act that way.
So, he's 'President Obama' for now. She's 'Speaker Pelosi.' He's 'Vice-President Biden,' although calling him 'the greatest life insurance policy known to man' would also be effective.
Someday they'll all be 'Former _______' just like 'Former President Bush.'
Let's be what we want others to be, let's do what we would have others to do.
Otherwise, this mess will never end.
The occasional thoughts of an ordinary man serving an extraordinary God. Come with me as we learn, teach, and laugh along the way.
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Have you seen the new bumper sticker? It says "Honk if I'm Paying Your Mortgage" !
ReplyDeleteSeen that one. I don't have an issue with things like that. Because, first of all, it's true.
ReplyDeleteWhat is aggravating me are the 'Not my President' stickers and shirts and things like that.
I also like the bumper sticker that says 'I'll keep my guns, freedom, and Religion. You can keep the change.'