I Am Not a Racist Just Because I Question the Policies of the Obama Administration

When one makes the statement, "Name one good thing that President Barack Obama has done for the United States." The answer is one of two things:

1. Dead silence.
2. "You can't expect the man to work miracles. After all, former President Bush screwed the economy up so bad that you can't possibly expect President Obama to be able to fix the American economy so easily." ...or something to that effect.

When option number 2 is employed, the next exchange is usually, "We weren't talking about former President Bush and what he did or did not do during his presidency. We were talking about the current President of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked you to name one thing that he has done that has been of benefit to the American people."

It is at this point in the exchange that I and others like me who choose to use our ability to think for ourselves and exercise our right as American citizens to speak freely with intelligence that we are called racist. Never, in my 43 years have I heard such insane exchanges between American citizens. What part of our inquiries have anything to do with the color of our president's skin?

This phenomenon has been going on with increasingly regularity as we watch the Obama administration stumble, falter, and flat out lie to us again and again. It's quite alarming to me on many levels as it seems that many Americans have forgotten one of the foundations that the United States was built upon: freedom of speech.

How many times have minorities been called racist because they have publicly criticized the policies of former United States presidents? The answer is, "Not once." So I would like to know why it is that the "racist" label is being tossed around with more and more frequency as we watch Obama descend in his approval ratings both here in the United States as he does abroad. Is the entire rest of the world racist too? Or is it just that President Obama is inept?

I don't have an issue with President Barack Obama's skin color. Why would I? I do, however, have tremendous issues with his policies as have many of the rest of the American people.This was clearly demonstrated by the recent election results in November 2010. Or did we all hallucinate those election results?

If a person can not intelligently defend the Obama Administration's policies then please take option 1 and remain silent. The chirping of crickets can be an enjoyable thing. But stop using the racist label when engaging in an intelligent debate with those of us who choose to exercise our rights to freedom of thought and freedom of speech. It is ridiculous, insulting and totally counterproductive to healthy debates; debates by which solutions to our problems might actually be found.