Whiteman's Column

I could scarcely believe my eyes while reading Mr. Whiteman's column titled "Bigotry Outnumbered This Election Season." He obviously does not include himself in the group of those overcome.

He states "We must pray that this is not the first jihad in the United States." Jihad? The U.S. population electing a Christian man as president of the United States is a jihad? What is this person thinking? Was he thinking the unspoken, that Mr. Obama is really a Muslim and therefore the Jihad connection? How bigoted! And how can your newspaper print such rubbish?

His mistaken notion of what the Democratic Party stands for is up to him. But it is more of a statement of how limited his knowledge really is rather than accurate.

His description of the lady who voted so she could cancel her son's vote is an egregious example of bad citizenship. Mercifully her son has evidently not been affected by her bad lead.

He can remember when his mother had to accept handouts and he had to endure "shame" from his classmates for his getting free school lunches. He probably does, but he probably forgets that it was probably not the fault of his mother that she was in that financial fix. Most poor people are poor due to complex reasons that they themselves have little control over.

He goes on to state that welfare is shameful. What is the alternative? Look at India where millions of families live on the streets. No welfare there. Is that better? Would Mr. Whiteman have turned out to be a better person or a better citizen if he went hungry at school?

Finally Mr. Whiteman says that, "There must be some way developed to eliminate it (welfare) to avoid keeping people forever in a state of poverty. I issue that challenge to him," evidently is meaning Mr. Obama. There are at least two ways to do this, a decent minimum wage and decent affordable child care for working parents, both strongly resisted by the Republicans. This challenge should be issued to the man Mr. Whiteman sees in the mirror each morning.

George Hein
Sebring