Paul Davis: Issue of race over our president draws concern

The jury may still be out, but I grow increasingly concerned about the issue of race in this country and about our collective attitude toward having, for the first time our history, a black man serving as our president.

All the elements just seem to be coming together and all seem to point in that general direction. How sad. How troubling.

We all remember the harsh vitriol aimed at former president George W. Bush and for that matter almost all of our presidents at one time or another. But the scenario seems different today.

We have just seen the U.S. House of Representatives rebuke one of its members, Joe “The Plumber” Wilson for his unseemly behavior during the joint session of Congress while the president was speaking.

He shouted out “you lie” as President Barack Obama promised once again that illegal aliens would not receive free health care under his plan for healthcare reform.

We can all say the president lies. We can say it is many times as we like and as loud as we like, but never before has a member of Congress shown such disrespect to a president on the floor of the house.

A rebuke was in order.

We watched this summer as armed men appeared at town hall rallies with guns strapped to their waist or with semi-automatic rifles slung over their shoulders. And yes, we did notice a sign or two posted during the recent March on Washington by conservatives proclaiming that Obama should be buried with Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator who recently died.

Then we have a town hall brawl in Auburn with fights that send one man to the hospital.

I voted for Obama, as did a majority of Americans and 10 percent of Alabamians. I also pity him. He inherited a Washington mess far worse than any I can ever remember.

George W. Bush, and the Congress controlled by Republicans, showed us more ways to waste taxpayer money than the Democrats ever did when they were practicing their drunken-sailor traits.

Total it up. Before President Obama even took the oath of office this country had debts totaling trillions of dollars, topped off by President Bush’s stimulus package which came in the form of hefty tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans.

Add to that the prospect of a total meltdown of our financial institutions, the continuation of two wars in two countries both of which remind us too much of Vietnam the collapse of the American automobile industry — and whatever else you want to add to the list.

Could any mortal tackle all of that or, as some seem to think or suggest, how could we ever entrust a black American to address all these problems. Can a black man be that smart? Could anyone?
We’ll see.

Half the nation thought George Bush couldn’t do anything right. Half the nation now feels that Obama can’t do anything right.

As long as we continue down this path, extending our energy and our collective strength on such partisan battles, whether they be tarnished by vestiges of race, we will have even less strength to identify, attack, and solve some of the most complex issues we will ever face as a young, mighty and free nation.

Paul Davis writes a column for the Sunday Opelika-Auburn News. You may contact him at