“Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.”–Barack Obama, Berlin July 24, 2008
Some people can say virtually anything and get away with it. A “fellow citizen of the world?” Perhaps Barack Obama believes such a lofty characterization of himself is above scrutiny. Has it occurred to Sen. Obama and his followers that such a definition applies to everyone? Aren’t Osama Bin Laden, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong Il and other assorted mass murderers, ruthless dictators and crackpots “fellow citizens of the world?”
The world has never been at a loss for dreamers who believe all of mankind is just one “inspirational” idea away from total harmony and everlasting peace. It is one thing when such people inhabit coffee bars, college campuses and candlelight vigils.
It is quite another when one presumes to inhabit the Oval Office.
In that world, such doe-eyed thinking is the antithesis of being responsible for keeping 300 million Americans safe from the “fellow citizens of the world” whose sole purpose in life is working towards our annihilation. They are not now, nor have they ever been, the least bit interested in “tearing down the walls that separate us,” “knowing the dream of freedom,” or “drying up the wells of terrorism.”
Some of these “fellow citizens of the world” would have the rest of us bowing towards Mecca five times a day. Others would have us enslaved to the whims of the state. Still others would treat women as property and strap suicide bomb belts on their children. All the “good will” and “enlightened thinking” in the world will never convince them “coming together as one” is in their best interests.
Being a citizen is defined as having an allegiance to, and the protection of, a country or government from whence such citizenship arises. As a citizen of the United States, Barack Obama commands a great deal of respect and power. As a citizen of the world, he’s a nobody, a voice drowned out by six billion others no more or less important than he is.
It is the United States of America, not the world, that has given Barack Obama unprecedented opportunity. It is to America, not the rest of the world that Mr. Obama owes his primary, and unquestioning, allegiance. Otherwise, he should get out of the way and let a genuine American–not a fellow citizen of the world–run for president.
atahlert@comcast.net
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