An Obama Shirt Incident in Sumter, SC Reveals a Bigger Problem

For the record, I'm an Independent who voted for Chuck Baldwin, the Constitutional Party nominee for President this past election, so I was neither on the Obama or McCain 2008 election bandwagon. However, when I read the following articles by Jordan Sandler on wistv.com, even I was disturbed about what happened at a Sumter, SC school a few weeks ago:

Principal forbids 5th to wear Obama shirt to school

Superintendent defends principal in Obama shirt controversy

The quick version of the articles is that a Sumter County, SC teacher advised a student not to wear a Barack Obama shirt to school prior to Inauguration Day for fear that the student would be harassed and for the "welfare" of the student.

I'm sorry, but such an explanation just does not "wash" or "fly" with me. A better Southern colloquialism would be "That dog won't hunt!"

First of all, exactly what should the student or for that matter the teacher be worry about? What has happened at that Sumter, SC school for a teacher to even think of doing such a thing? Exactly whom should the student be fearful of ridicule from? The other students? The principal? The community? Sumter SC Republicans? Please!

I find this kind of action by any school immature, appalling, and asinine at best. You mean to tell me, that a student can wear a "Satan Rules" or "Jesus Loves" or "McCain/Palin" shirt in Sumter County District Two schools with not such much as a faculty or staff member passing gas over it, but a student who is excited about an Presidential inauguration that will be taught in American History classes for years to come because Barack Obama is the first US President who is non-white CAN'T WEAR A SHIRT WITH HIS FACE ON IT UNTIL HE IS SWORN INTO OFFICE?

MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON SUMTER COUNTY SCHOOLS and MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

The fact that a teacher has the time for this nonsense instead of teaching students in a public school in a state that is consistently ranked toward the bottom in the nation in education lets me know that there is a bigger problem.

Would you like to guess what the problem is? Here are some clues:

The Daytona 500 is called "The Great American (blank)"

The 1982 number-one single by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder was "(Blank) and (Blank)"

Sumter County District Two's problem is as clear as (blank) and (blank).

It's amazing to me that people say that South Carolina has an image problem. Really?... I wonder why? Maybe it's because South Carolina has a (blank) problem. You think?

ATTENTION SUMTER COUNTY SCHOOLS: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA II, AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN, IS THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. GET OVER IT, GROW UP, GET A LIFE, AND EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN, PLEASE! THANK YOU!

The New York Times Did Not Do Columbia, SC a Favor - Just Ask Mayor Bob Coble.

Here's my point:

Your job is to market the city of Columbia, SC, the capital city of South Carolina. You wake up one December morning, just a few days before Christmas to read one of your favorite newspapers, The New York Times. You turn to the business section and you read the following:

Reeling South Carolina City Is a Snapshot of Economic Woes

Merry Christmas! The New York Times just "dissed" your city BIG TIME!

I understand the premise of the article. I really do. Peter S. Goodman wanted New York Times readers to understand America's economic dilemma, not in concepts or theories, but in terms of real cities and real people. BUT MR. GOODMAN, DID YOU HAVE TO PICK COLUMBIA, SC? MY HOMETOWN? MY BIRTHPLACE?

The Goodman article de facto just told millions of Americans looking for jobs, "Hey, if you want a job, DON'T COME TO COLUMBIA! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! HEY, FORGET ABOUT IT!"

To be fair, Mr. Goodman tried to give hope to my hometown city regarding the agenda of President Obama. But I believe the die has long since been cast.

So how do you market Columbia now? What do you tell job seekers outside the city or outside businesses looking to relocate? "Hey come to Columbia; We're friendly, we have no jobs, but we have fried chicken and a Confederate battle flag on the corner of Main and Gervais. You can't miss it, just look for the State House. Y'all come over ya hear?"

Have fun with this one Mayor Bob Coble, it's a doozy!

Three Numbers Define the Presidency of George W. Bush

"Bush Issues Order Preventing Strike by Airline Union"

"Bush, in Reversal, Won't Seek Cut In Emissions of Carbon Dioxide"

"Bush and Health Care Companies Promise Medicare Drug Discounts"

Don’t these headlines bring back memories? I mean, I can remember exactly where I was when President George W. Bush and then Russian President Vladimir Putin held that famous and eye-riveting news conference in Genoa, Italy for the G-8 Summit, standing side-by-side talking about the Kyoto Protocol and finding “common ground”

Yes, I remember those moments as if they were yesterday….

SAY WHAT! EXCUSE ME? …In the words of former college coach and television football analyst Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!”

WHY DON’T WE REMEMBER? Are you kidding? WHY?

You know why. Everyone age 7 and older that day knows why. It’s the same reason an earlier generation has and always will remember DECEMBER 7, 1941 …for the rest of their lives. We know why.

Remember when the numbers 9/11 only stood for an emergency phone number; when “ground zero” only meant the exact locations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the two atomic bombs detonated; when only those in the Pentagon knew what “homeland security” meant; when folks could say goodbye to someone taking a airline flight AT THE GATE WINDOW?

September 11, 2001 changed everything, everyone, and everywhere. The world changed and so did America, along with a United States President in just his ninth month in office. That fateful day just after 9 am, the Presidency of George Bush missed the exit going to “the usual” and go on the expressway to “Oh my God!” One morning President Bush is reading a children’s book to second-graders in a Florida classroom and by the evening the President is addressing a stunned nation …in morning, fear, anger, and disbelief.

Like Lincoln with Fort Sumter, Wilson’s second term with the Zimmermann Telegram, FDR with Pearl Harbor, and LBJ to a certain degree with the Gulf of Tonkin, September 11th rerouted “the best laid plans” of President George Bush. Like presidents before him, America will never know how Bush’s presidency would have gone without 9/11. Hypothetically, if we could put any US President in history (Washington, Jefferson, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton) in Bush’s place that day, how would their presidency have gone in the following years?

The following January at a press conference in Ontario, California, President Bush referred those 12 hours of history as “an interesting day.” It certainly was…and a bag of chips.