Land of the Free and the Home of the Cowards?

Eric Holder, the newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General, made this statement yesterday: "... in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." Wow! He must have a lot of clout to get away with calling us a nation of cowards. Where's the public outrage? Why isn't the media jumping all over this? Being a high-ranking government official and telling the people you "serve" that they are cowards? Well Mr. Holder, I for one disagree with you and will dedicate this post to a recent racial issue. (I told you there weren't any taboo subjects.) In fact, the racial issue surfaced the same day you made your outlandish statement.

The New York Post published an editorial cartoon with a monkey being shot to death by a police officer. It was an obvious reference to a recent story about a pet chimpanzee who was shot to death this week after attacking a house guest in Connecticut. What was not so obvious--or at least what the controversy is about--was whom or what the chimpanzee represented. The Post Editor in Chief said it "broadly mocks Washington". The Reverend Al Sharpton condemned it as a racist insult about President Barack Obama. (I'm not a gambler, but if I were, I would love to play cards with Sharpton because you always know what card he's going to play.)

This is a country that allows freedom of speech to mock the president and those holding that position have been, for as long as I know, the brunt of political cartoons. The question isn't whether this particular cartoon was inappropriate, disrespectful or disgusting (unfortunately too many of them are). The question is do we treat one president different than all the others simply because he's half black? If we really are color blind to race then the answer is a resounding NO! And lest we forget, the last president was compared to monkeys quite a bit. Do any of you recall Rev. Sharpton coming to President Bush's defense for any of those comparisons? Same political office, same rules--let's not be cowardly about it.

Oh well, at least Michelle is proud of us now.