Re: President in chief, or sitcom host?

A popular topic as of late has been the involvement of President Obama in an arrest of prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates by a Sgt. James Crowley. According to reports, Crowley was following up a break-in possibility at Gates' house, but was met with resistant behavior from Gates when the professor refused to show his ID. Opinionated blogs seem to have split down the middle, one side accusing the sergeant of unfair and racist acts, the other standing behind him and affirming his actions as the right thing to do. One such classmate's blog stands firmly with the former, having posted a commentary entitled "President in chief, or sitcom host?"

This post has further taken into account Obama's response to the arrest. The author verbally shakes their head at the president for focusing all his power on such a small, local issue, saying that "sad days loom ahead for the U.S. if [he] can't focus on the bigger picture." And this is true. Whether or not Gates is an acquaintance of Obama's, our president should be focused on more national issues, rather than a mere arrest. Considering the amount of news coverage this one situation has generated, it seems as though everything has been blown massively out of proportion.

Another question the author of the commentary raises is whether it's "fair game to pull out the race card for any matter now." And this is yet another provoking topic. Racial discrimination has gone back for centuries, and America has done its best to overcome the problem. But apparently we still live in a time where people will indeed pull out the race card, even if it doesn't apply. When Crowley told Gates he was looking into a break-in, Gates' response was "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" It's really quite sad that he managed to turn the whole scenario into a problem of discrimination, when he could have simply cooperated and given the police is ID, rather than a "difficult time."

Ultimately, I agree with the opinion the author of this blog post offered. President Obama should focus on the things he's actually supposed to be involved in, and Gates should cooperate with law officials in the future instead of accusing them of racism.