Donald Trump and “Birthers” should deal with the facts, not wild speculation divisive to the country

Commentary

By Juanita Bratcher

Some people will say any and everything to draw attention and sap-up public interest to whatever cause they are trying to espouse for various reasons, even if devoid of facts.

Such is the case of Investment Tycoon Donald Trump. In recent weeks, Trump has fueled the “Birthers” debate by taking to the airwaves spewing out vicious and off-the-wall statements when questioning President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Trump’s voice has joined the chorus of team “Birthers” and many extreme Right Wingers that for a while now have long been crying wolf over Obama’s birth certificate.

The “Birthers” actions can be looked upon as nothing more than a blatant means of planting seeds of distrust in the American people and polarize the country in the same manner in which they tried to kill off Health Care Reform with incendiary talk, misinformation, lies and underhanded tactics at health care rallies to derail health care reform legislation.

In several media interviews Trump declared that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. Citizen, that he was born in Kenya. He even stated that he had sent investigators to Hawaii to investigate the issue and went on to say that Obama’s grandmother even said he was born in Kenya.

Recently, Trump said he hates what is happening to this country. What is happening to this country, I ask? He didn’t get specific. Anyone can shoot from the lip or the hip and make opinionated statements, but do they speak to truth? What about some facts to back them up? Is it being done by Trump to liven, muster up or boost his run for President of the United States? According to polls, his numbers went up after he started questioning Obama’s citizenship.

It is unprincipled to give power and life to unproved rumors just to make a point that isn’t! One must deal with the facts, not mere speculation and personal attacks, especially when they don’t balance out. The majority of American voters elected Obama as president. They chose him to lead this country. And you can bet your bottom dollar that anyone who makes a run for the presidency is thoroughly checked out through this country’s intelligence and the mass news media. There’s no question, the mass media would be swarming with articles if it were so. Don’t think for one second that anyone can be president of this country before being thoroughly checked out. And I have tremendous confidence in our intelligence system. I, too, know that the news media will have their investigative search engines in place roaring and purring to find out facts and truth. That you can bank on!

Obama presented a live birth certificate when he run for the presidency, nonetheless, after being sworn into office he has constantly been dogged by the issue from “Birthers”. Is it racism? Obviously it is.

Trump has received praise (from the Birthers and Right Wingers) and criticism from others for his remarks on Obama’s citizenship.

The state official in Hawaii in charge of Obama’s birth information said there is an original birth certificate on file that confirms that Obama was born in Hawaii but state law won’t allow it to be released unless the president authorizes it.

Hawaii’s Governor Neil Abercrombie, in a statement this year said an investigation had found papers proving that Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

“It actually exists in the archives, written down,” Abercrombie said in an interview with the Honolulu’s Star-Advertiser.

Abercrombie also said that he knew Obama’s parents, and that he was “here when he was born.”

Commenting on the Birthers, Abercrombie, when appearing on CNN, stated that they will not be convinced because they have a political agenda, or they have minds that go in that kind of direction. He added that political theorists will never be satisfied and that it has gone into another area of “political attack.”

Trump’s remarks questioning Obama’s citizenship set-off an “outrage” from the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans.

In a news release the NBCI stated: “As a national African American organization, we are appalled that in Trump’s effort to garner publicity and separate himself from the pack he feels it is appropriate to dredge up false, divisive and ugly rumors about our elected President.  While we may disagree with Obama on policy decisions, we wholeheartedly stand behind our President and, in accordance with widely accepted facts, acknowledge his lawful citizenship.  Those who remain skeptical are unsuccessfully hiding their racism under a veil of conspiracy theories and gossip.  So, to those who continue to undermine the legitimacy of our President’s citizenship – we see you for what you are.”

Rev. Anthony Evans, President of NBCI says, “When anyone attempts to divide the American public for personal political gain the democratic system is tarnished by indignity.  As a leader in the faith-based community I can confidently say that we stand united – promoting the Christian values of respect and inclusiveness, divided not by race or belief, in support our President.  I strongly feel that Donald Trump is using race to further a divisive agenda – an agenda that has no place in modern American political culture. We have come a long way, Obama’s election illustrating the evolution of equality in the United States.  Let us not allow anyone to regress the progress we have achieved by championing false, racist beliefs.”

Former Alaska Gov. and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin jumped on the bandwagon with Trump after having said in a “wishy washy” statement a few months earlier  that she didn’t question Obama’s citizenship.

However, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in an interview with Larry Kudlow (CNBC), described the “birthers” claim not credible, but said there were compelling reasons to get Obama out of the White House. Romney has already formally announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee.

Romney said he thinks the citizenship test has been passed, that he believes Obama was born in the United States.

In an interview with Politico, Urban League President Marc Morial said: “There’s a lot of people that I’ve talked to [who] instinctively think that he’s using the issue as a proxy for race. I don’t know if it has resonance in the Republican Party but I certainly think it has resonance in certain far right elements of the American public.”

Morial added: “It’s like a modern day Salem witch trial — because there’s no merit to it.”

President Obama weighed in on the “Birthers” controversy in a recent interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos:

“I think that over the last two and a half years there’s been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short-term for Republicans. But [it] creates, I think, a problem for them when they want to actually run in a general election where most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii. He– he doesn’t have horns…we’re not really worrying about conspiracy theories or– or birth certificates.”

In other developments, the Arizona House and Senate approved a bill that would require all 2012 presidential candidates to show proof of being a U.S. citizen before being included on the state’s ballot. The bill has now gone to Gov. Jan Brewer’s desk to be signed into law; although it is not known what her intentions are. If it is signed into law, Arizona would be the first state to pass such legislation.

Under the Bill, candidates can show alternative documents – a baptismal or circumcision certificate, a postpartum medical record or a hospital birth – if they don’t have a birth certificate.

As for questioning Obama’s citizenship, the late Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer’s phrase says it best: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Enough already.

Perhaps Trump’s intention is to get favor from the Tea Party and extremist Right Wingers in an election that he has a very slim chance at winning.