Thank you, General Powell

So, I'm like, a week behind the news cycle on this, but: THANK YOU, General Powell.

I didn't see Meet the Press when he was on it (ok, I never watch Meet the Press, so this shouldn't be surprising), but when I finally got around to watching the replay of his interview, I found myself almost in tears, mostly specifically at this part:

“ ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Why has it taken so long for someone to say this? I'm reminded of hearing Ann Richards speak once, about how campainging in Texas, one of the tactics used against her by the Bush campaign were flyers left on voters cars, informing the voters that she employed homosexuals. And by all accounts, it was successful. People in Texas didn't want to vote for someone who was OK with homosexuals. I'm amazed that the public as a whole isn't enraged at being so manipulated.

What a horrible way to profit from attitudes we should be ashamed of. We all have our prejudices that influence how we see and treat the world, but I cannot believe that we as a country celebrate them and condone them -- we should be working to overcome them! We should be ashamed of ourselves, that we think this is acceptable behavior, this hate mongering. That we've bought into the idea that these "accusations" ('He's Muslim!" "She knows gay people!") would sway us as voters -- and maybe it does, as evidenced by the fact that the Obama campaign removed woman in headscarves from a TV cameras line of sight lest America see him with "them". I know deep down that we as a country are better than that, but I also know that the Obama campaign has no reason to trust that we are. Maybe it's time that we gave him a reason to.

So, thank you, General Powell, for reminding us that we should hold ourselves to a higher standard, that our personal unease with a specific ethnicity, religion or way of life is not something that should be exploited for political gain. We deserve better from people who are asking for our vote, but more importantly we deserve better from ourselves.