Osama's Teachable Moment

Osama's Teachable Moment
By John Ransom
5/3/2011

Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins both think the administration should release photos of the body of Osama bin Laden, however gruesome they might be.

I go on record as one who believes that Seal Team Six dispatched Osama bin Laden with a shot to the head and chest in Pakistan. But I do understand the suspicions of people less trusting than I.

“Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who serves as ranking member of the committee, agreed that “’there will be those that will try to generate this myth that he is alive and we missed him somehow,’” reports the Washington Times.

“’In order to put that to rest it may be necessarily to release some of the pictures, the video, or the DNA testing to prevent that from happening,’” she said.

While some made mention that it would help put to rest questions from the Islamic world about bin Laden’s death, it’s clear that the senators were talking about naysayers in the U.S. as well.

Both senators missed much of the point.

It’s gotten to where in even the most important aspects of U.S. policy, a place where we should all be in agreement- killing Osama bin Laden is good- that some portion of the public just doesn’t trust the government –the establishment- to tell them the truth.

This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democrat problem.

It’s a bipartisan problem.

The fact is, the public has been sold one too many bridges to nowhere by both parties.

But it goes beyond mere politics, because the level of frustration and anger that politicians, the press and the cognoscenti point to as a sign of incivility is directly tied to that mistrust of them for the very healthy reason that they treat the rest of us in a way that breeds mistrust.

I write for an internet site that represents a conservative point of view. We don’t hide that. But the number of so-called “news” sites that have deeply embedded liberal biases is legion. Because of that, viewers, readers and browsers don’t trust them.

We’re not talking Huffington Post here, but Washington Post, New York Times, ABC News, Newsweek, Time, CNN, NPR, MSNBC and a host of others who masquerade as unbiased “news” organizations.

These are the same organizations who refused to ask candidate Obama about the land deal he struck with a convicted felon, Antoin "Tony" Rezko; these are the same organizations who told us that those who questioned Obama’s ties to radical cleric Jeremiah Wright were motivated by racism; these are the same organizations who treated Obama’s ties to a known terrorist William Ayers as if they were “just neighbors.”

Canada won’t let Ayers into its country, but Obama let the Weather Underground terrorist hold a fundraiser in Ayers’ living room? And “news” sites accidentally forget to mention it on a regular basis.

“I think the Bill Ayers relationship is exactly as it has been described—their kids went to the same school…But beyond that…” says Mara Liasson Political Correspondent for NPR.

What about the fundraiser held in Ayer’s living room? asks Fox’s Britt Hume.

“Yes,” answers Liasson, grudgingly. “And the first coffee was held at Ayers' house.”

Oh yeah…by the way…

So one of the first fundraisers of Obama’s political career was held at William Ayers house and the press found there was nothing wrong with that?

The conventional media treat Sarah Palin like she’s some KKK trollop because she happens to identify with middle-America, but bomb-planter William Ayers is dismissed out of hand as coincidental?

I’m sure the fact that Obama and Ayers then served together on several boards of directors is also just a part of the vast right-wing conspiracy funded by the Koch Brothers.

Chicago really is such a small city after all.

So yes.

People don’t just want to hear bin Laden’s dead, they want to see that he’s dead too.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me continuously for years and years and years….

And I’ll want pictures. And then I’ll still disbelieve you when I see them.

If it drives you crazy that middle-America thinks that way, then now, finally, YOU understand how the rest of us feel about you.

And for that, you’re welcome.

This teachable moment was provided with the help of Osama bin Laden.
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To read another article by John Ransom, click here.