When I think about the fact that one of our major political parties will soon officially nominate a black man for the highest office in the land, I realize that in some respects, we as a nation have come a long way. I could have never imagined this 20 years ago when I was starting high school, or really even as recently as five or ten years ago. I'd pretty much assumed that we as a people would continue to exclusively nominate white men for the office ad nauseum. Though I like to think that Obama's rise to this point is as much about who he is as a person and not his color, I have to say that it is significant that we've reached this point.

However, when I look around and listen to what some people are printing and saying about Barack Obama, I realize that in many respects, we're not too far removed from the days prior to the Civil Rights Movement. The prejudices are still there, only not as overt. They're couched in all sorts of euphemisms and disguised as other issues, but they're still there.

Personally, I think it would be funny how scared some of our citizens appear to be of the notion that we could have a black president-elect come November, if it weren't for the fact that they're taking this fear to illogical extremes, and seeking to scare and manipulate others with it. And that's what it is, make no mistake. It's fear. Fear of a black president.

A cursory glance around this website, or any number of other blogs or sites of that nature, will reveal the depth of the fear of Obama, and the lengths some people are going to just to throw that fear into the hearts of everyone they encounter. I have friends who inundate people's e-mail inboxes with all sorts of forwarded propaganda purporting to reveal "the truth" about Obama, but the e-mails are full of the same thoroughly discredited crap that only a truly ignorant person could believe. Why do these people do this? What are they so afraid of? Why are they so adamant about not having this black man as president that many of them who would otherwise vote Democrat are talking of voting of McCain instead? Why would they put race ahead of voting for a candidate who is truly more on their ideological level?

I'd just like to say in the interest of disclosure here that I'm not a member of the Obama fan club, and as of now have no intentions of voting for him come November. My concerns are more fiscal. I don't have much faith that Obama can rein in spending or keep from hiking taxes through the roof. Unlike irrational, racism-addled out there steadily spreading lies and propaganda, I actually have sane reasons for picking a candidate.

I think it's particularly odious that many of the people who are spreading this crap are attempting to use religion as a front for this virulent racism. I've seen so many blog entries and e-mails that attempt to play on the fear of Islam in this country that is a byproduct of 9/11. A friend of my sister's adamantly believes that if Obama is elected, he'll have the Muslims of this country blow up all the gas stations. I wish I was making this up. A co-worker who was a huge Hillary Clinton supporter would go on about how Obama was a "reformed Muslim," but since he was once a Muslim, he couldn't be a Christian. The woman in question doesn't have the faintest hint of what one might call a religious life, doesn't go to church, and certainly isn't in a position to decide who's Christian and who isn't.

I've had coworkers go on about how Obama isn't patriotic and won't put his hand on his heart for the Pledge Of Allegiance. Is this what it's come to? If we're worried about something patently nonsensical like this, clearly we've solved every other problem that exists in this world. Who cares? It's easy to say words, and it's easy to worship idols and objects. That's not real patriotism. But these sorts of "patriots" are the ones who will call the very real service of John Kerry into question while voting for the likes of Bush and Cheney, one of which spent Vietnam in the ultra-cushy Alabama Air National Guard, the other of which got deferment after deferment to avoid the conflict in Southeast Asia. Patriotism is easy when you never have to actually back it up, and even easier when you can sit back and just call others' patriotism into question without ever being accountable.

Then there are the folks who attempt to paint Obama out to be something far more sinister. I've encountered any number of pieces of trash in blogs that suggest that Obama is the antichrist. The people who spew this crap are absolutely sincere in their quest to get out this misinformation. A search of the words "Obama antichrist" at Google yields over half a million hits. An email a friend of mine received insisted that the book of "Revelations" (when will these people learn that the book is called Revelation, and is not plural?) described the antichrist as "a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with his persuassive (sic) language, and have massive Christ-like appeal." And there are so many people who, having never picked up a Bible in their lives, will take these utterances as fact. I've read Revelation at least a half-dozen times, and I missed that part. Listen, people! There is no literal description given of the antichrist, at least not one in terms of a physical description or anything of that nature. And on top of all that, Islam wasn't founded until a good four centuries after Revelation was written. Well, there's that, and the fact that, despite all the bleating to the contrary, Barack Obama is NOT A MUSLIM.

There are so many other examples of deliberate attempts to misinform. One e-mail that is making the rounds suggests that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. The reasons for this are varied and complex, but they are all wrong. They range from saying that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. (he was born in Hawaii), that Hawaii wasn't part of the United States when he was born (Hawaii had been a state for two years at the time of his birth), and the absolutely absurd notion that Obama's mother was too young for him to have been a citizen because she didn't live in the United States for five years after she turned sixteen, which has to be the most ridiculous load of crap I've ever heard. But there are people who will believe this crap, without ever once thinking to research it and see if it's correct.

But why? I can only assume it is because when you feed this sort of information to people who fear and dislike blacks, you're telling them things they want to hear. It's no different from the people who were willing to believe that Iraq was complicit in 9/11, or any of the other reasons Bush and his cronies gave us for wanting to launch the Iraq invasion. Despite being presented with all sorts of evidence to the contrary, evidence that clearly demonstrated that Bush and his administration were at best misinformed and at worst complete liars, people were willing to believe the most comical and far-fetched propaganda regarding Saddam Hussein.

The saddest part is that all those people who were for Hillary who now say that they'll vote for McCain would realize if they bothered to look and inspect the candidates' positions that Obama is far closer to their idelogical equal than McCain could ever hope to be. And when you're pretty much willing to vote in a manner that cuts off your nose to spite your face, it suggests to me that maybe we need some sort of basic intelligence standard for being able to vote in this country.

I hope that at some point these charlatans, these false prophets that are spoken of in the book of Matthew (which is far more pertinent to the issue at hand than anything one can dig up in Revelation) come to realize the dirt and damage they're doing, and realize that in manipulating their holy books, and manipulating others' holy books for a base end like this, they are disrespecting themselves, disrespecting true people of faith, and disrespecting whatever god or gods they believe in. I hope at some point these people will let go of the fear and hatred they have, and learn to judge people as they are, not based on a bunch of hearsay designed to play on their worst fears.