Honorable John Campbell
Dear Mr. Campbell:
Events the past two days have caused me to become very agitated about your co-authorship and support for House Bill 1503. First and foremost, there are extremely serious issues facing Congress which I want my representative to address. Second, this legislation is unnecessary and, in my opinion, represents a racist bit of pandering to the extreme wing of the Republican Party. Since my first point begs the obvious and does need elaboration, please allow me to address the second point in detail.
To give you some context, allow me to remind you that I supported you in the last election and thought you were courageous to support the financial bailout that prevented a global financial meltdown. Although I voted for Obama, I encouraged dozens of my friends and neighbors in the 48th to vote for you. I am also the white mother of a black daughter who has faced innumerable instances of well-meaning folks engaging in discrimination and double standards when it comes to people of color.
This affects my interpretation; you may be inclined to call it a bias.
House Bill 1503 would require Presidential candidates to produce a birth certificate in order to run for office. It does not apply that requirement to any other elected office, including Congress. Why? The answer is obvious. Despite your feeble attempts on Hardball to claim this was not about President Obama, the bill is clearly aimed at appeasing the racists in this party who cannot believe a man born in Hawaii of a white American mother and a black African father is a legitimate President.
In co-authoring this bill you encourage the xenophobia that is becoming the trademark of the Republican Party. You know the President is a citizen. You know this is an unnecessary piece of legislation. It does nothing but fuel the fires of discontent among the fringe party base which cannot abide with a man of color in the White House. It reinforces the double-standard for whites and so-called others.
There was a long tradition in the party of standing for principles of fiscal restraint, individual liberty and opposition to a nanny state. I watched this tradition erode during the Bush administration; the desecration of party principles was met with silence and tacit support from party leaders) representatives in Congress. (Leaders in this instance is an oxymoron)
Now when I read the news, watch the cable or surf the internet I am confronted with a Republican Party face that most often embarrasses and frequently disgusts me. Let me give you a couple examples.
- In the confirmation hearings for SCOTUS, much ado was made about Sonya Sotomeier’s ethnic and gender background as a possible BIAS influencing her decisions. This was despite seventeen (17) years of moderate decisions on the bench. Gender and life experience influencing the way one sees the world? Shocking, shocking, I say. No. What the Senators Sessions, Graham, Kyl did not grasp was the fact that their white masculinity shapes how THEY see the world. To the majority of viewers (under 60 years of age and not white) this illustrated a group of old, out of touch men trying to reassert the nonsense that only white men see the world clearly. Silly, if it was not so shameful. I won’t even comment on the gendered accusation by Sen. Graham (using a skewed sample of anonymous comments) about Ms. Sotomeier’s temperament: it was way too far over the top.
- When Henry Louis Gates was arrested in his own home for "disorderly conduct" due to his temerity of asking for the name and badge number of a Cambridge police officer, I expected a window of understanding might open for those who believe people of color "play the race card." No, I was not surprised at the incident; I was disappointed in the response. Talking heads on TV look for the many ways to deny that a double standard for people of color exists. A 58 year old Harvard professor, supported by a cane for walking, is suspected of burglarizing a house in broad daylight—a house which his ID proves is his own. How often does that happen to whites?
To add insult to injury, a national press conference on our health care crisis is diverted by a reporter asking President Obama’s take on the incident. Would Bush have been asked? No.
The questioner, however, highlights that our President is black. And what does the press take away from the one hour conference? Obama called the Cambridge police out for acting "stupid." Again, we leave substance aside to remind the discontented that we have a President who is not white.
- When Republican leaders and representatives circulate photo-shopped photos of our President as a witch doctor, or show the White House with watermelons on the lawn I expect an apology and a condemnation by party leaders. Instead, we get denials about the long history of racial animus that sources these images and a firm insistence on creating a racially innocent white-self by the insensitive perpetrators of these racial stereotypes. Well, let’s just quote NRC Chair Michael Steele, "That don’t play" among the new majority of Americans. The same party chairman recently outlined his strategy for appealing to youth and minorities: "Come on y’all. I got potato salad and fried chicken." Classy, hmm?
- When my Congressional representative becomes the laughing stock of a John Stewart show segment, I have come to the end of my rope. Remember John Stewart is the most trusted newsman according to recent polls. He may be dismissed as a clown by the stale, pale and mostly male crowd that currently comprises the party base, but that illustrates how out of touch the base has become.
Orly Taitz, D.D.S., and Esq. (and also realtor ) is the spear-head of the West Coast "birther movement." She lives in Irvine and is one of your constituents. As you make choices about whose interests you will represent, I remind you that you are on a very slippery slope. I live in Aliso Viejo and only have a Ph.D., but I wager my perfect voting record (never missing an election in the 39 years since I turned 21 ) outdoes hers.
You won the last election with my vote and those of friends and neighbors who asked my advice; truth be known, it took some arm-twisting, too. My bad. Despite the 48th favoring Obama over McCain, you held your seat in large part for having been reasonable and thoughtful; your support of House bill 1503 is neither.
I urge you to extricate yourself from what I guarantee the majority of the U.S. citizens see as a thinly veiled attack on our President’s race and legitimacy. When you count the "hits" on You-tube replaying your mendacious performance on Hardball and John Stewart’s evisceration of the "birther" movement, rest assured that the majority of those many viewers are under 40 years old and not white.
In close, you have far more important and serious issues with which to expend your time and energy. I expect better of my Congressional representative and will expect an apology and a retraction of support for HB 1503.
Respectfully,