A Nation of Immigrants

I've been watching the--repeated--coverage of one of John McCain's rallies. The one where the woman is "afraid" of Barack Obama because he's an Arab and a Muslim. Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that neither is true, ours is a nation of immigrants. My own ancestors came to this country many, many years ago, but they were still immigrants. At the time of my maternal (great x ??) grandparents' journey to this country, immigrants were seeking the right to worship their God without persecution. In many parts of the world, religious persecution remains a problem today. I hope that is not true in this country. Barack Obama, of course, is not an Arab, and he is not a Muslim. He is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. He is a Christian and has always been a Christian. Political campaigns have always been hotbeds of controversy--many times conducted with somewhat convoluted versions of the truth and sometimes with outright lies. I think that this particular election may be even worse than usual, partly because Barack Obama is such an unusual name--not like Bush or Clinton--and partly because our candidates for president in the past have always been white. Many voters have to struggle to get used to the idea of a black man as president. But this is such an important election that I hope we will all make the effort to vote the issues and not let skin color dictate our decision.