Protecting A Potential President

A couple months ago, the story headlined for almost every major news source, whether on paper, television, or the internet.

According to court documents, two white supremacists were arrested for conspiring to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and to kill 102 others at a predominantly African American School. The alleged plot did not seem like it was refined or well thought out. The two "skinheads" who had met online were planning to drive as fast as they could towards Obama while shooting from the windows of their vehicle.

Even though it was not well contemplated,
the attempt was nevertheless seriously
considered, and it brings to mind the
assassination of John F. Kennedy,
allegedly the only non-Protestant male to
ever be elected U.S. president. Even though the matter regarding JFK's religious views was big news during the early 1960s, one hopes that it would go unnoticed in the United States of today, a nation which claims to have grown in tolerating and accepting the differences in people.

This election season, which boasted
a female nominee not only for president
but also vice president, attests to this
growth. A time like no other has come;
a time where the American people can
choose a president not based on his
religion or race but rather on his ideals
and stance on crucial affairs.

Obama's victory would show great progress for
the nation. But of course, there are still
those who believe that anyone remotely
different is bad and shouldn't be in a
position of high authority.

In the past, this "old thinking" reigned
with the "separate but equal" philosophy,
preventing African Americans from
being able to vote, run for government
office or even to read and write. There was controversy when Obama was assigned Secret Service protection earlier into his campaign than any other presidential candidate, speculating that it was unwarranted and only due to his race.

But perhaps it was an attempt at preventing history from repeating itself. A Secret Service protection was issued because of his strong influence over millions of people. Powerful leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were killed along with their ideas and intentions for a better world because of narrow-minded
assassins' bullets, stunting America's
progress and making its citizens wonder
what could have been.

American history has many sad stories
of people who have impacted the nation
but whose lives were cut short, although
their ideals lived on. Obama is one of
those rare people whose affluence is being
likened to Abraham Lincoln and JFK. His
presence and stature is one that has not
been seen and sensed in a long time.

America can handle an African American in the oval office; the nation has greatly advanced since times of intolerance concerning differences in race, culture and religion. But this does not necessarily mean that we have to let our guard down. Although the majority of Americans are open-minded, there are still those few who wish to go into an age of retrogression, willing to do anything in order to prevent our development towards the modern age.

Death threats are feared to become
commonplace with an Obama presidency,
but proper authorities will take every
threat seriously to halt any attempts at
assassination.

America has never had an African
American president, but this fear of the
unknown should not prevent us from
progress. Obama becoming president
will hopefully change the ideas of certain
narrow minded individuals and slowly
steer them into 21st century thinking.