Death Threats to President Obama

An email came across my desk yesterday with claims that President Barack Obama receives more than 30 death threats each day which is about fifty percent more than President Bush received and perhaps about 90 per cent more than any other President and it appears that the Secret Service agency is not taking this seriously. There is also talk that the security budget being seriously restricted. This is cause for concern for those who fear that there are those who watch him with poisoned eyes and ready to pounce when one least expects. The point is given American history of killing presidents that some people do not favour, this should be taken with utmost seriousness.

For many African Americans these threats are scary and they take them very seriously. African Americans have lived through the Klu Klux Klan, Jim Crow and other instruments of racism which run deep in America. I must quickly add that there have been positive race-relation changes in America largely due to the fact that the diehards are dying hard and fast while the young people in spite of their older generations inflicted racism are trying to rise above that. The young people know that racism - superiority of one race over another - is a lot of hogwash and the source of many of the world's pain and conflict. Today's youths are indeed more enlightened than their parents and are exposed to difference over which they have little control. People who are different are encountered in every walk of life that is hard to escape. The cocoon has busted wide open. For example, the lung or heart transplant that a white person might receive in America could have possibly come from a person of colour in America or some other part of the world. We are all interconnected.

It is the young people who have helped President Barack Obama to get elected by using the new technology which connects people on the basis of ideas. It is hoped that the young people will help protect the President from danger.

Yes, President Obama represents change, radical change that some Americans might not be comfortable with but they are in the minority - these are people for whom the old ways of exploitation, class hierarchy and spitting on the poor from their lofts work just fine. By the same token, the poor are also empowered through modern technology and they have greater access to information. They want to be heard, they want improvement for themselves and their children just like every other American. Their votes count just the same.

America prides and promotes itself as a country where God is head but man makes the flawed rules. What about compassion for the poor and destitute? Don't they deserve a break - why fight the health bill and other efforts of the President to bring about relief for the poor? Why do they try to kill something and someone who is good and good for America?

Here are ten ways to keep President Barack Obama safe:

1. Plain clothes security guards must be around the President 24/7

2. President should have some insignificant street keeping their ears to the ground for him.

3. There should be a women's brigade to work the crowds when he is out and about.

4. Hire about 100 youths who are blackberries, cell phones, and technologically savvy to gather intelligence and report to the official security people

5. President Obama must always wear bullet proof vests whenever he has to meet the public.

Follow these rules and our President Barack Obama will be safe.