Does Barack Obama ever think about his words and actions and how they might be received coming not from the president but from some ordinary workaday stiff? Does he even care? At various times during the past four years, he has lectured wealthy Americans (read: rich fat cats) on the need for shared sacrifice in these financially challenging times, then turned around and taken his family on lavish vacations, partly on the taxpayers’ dime.
Today, he was at it again. Demonstrating what a terrific and energetic dad he is, he appeared in an action photo with one of his daughters, armed with a water pistol. The image appears at the White House Twitter account with the message, “Hope all the dads out there have a great Father’s Day weekend.”
Is Obama not aware that a Maryland sixth grader was suspended last week for saying “gun” on a school bus? That a kindergartner from a different school in the same state was interrogated for two hours and suspended for 10 weeks for bringing a toy gun to school? That a California elementary school instituted a buyback program for toy guns?
Stories of such overreactions have been rampant in the media ever since the Newtown shootings. Are we to understand that our president is clueless about their existence?
The Daily Caller, which carried the White House photo, quotes Yih-Chau Yang, a spokesperson for Responsible Citizens of California, who wrote in an email that “perhaps the national conversation on this issue will take a new turn now that President Obama has seemingly weighed in on the issue.” Don’t bet on it. Smart money says the anti-toy gun hysteria will continue apace, along with high-minded statements like the one by Chris Hill, principal of the school that implemented the toy gun buyback program:
Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun.
In the meantime, the president will continue his heedless ways, appearing in pictures like the one at the White House Twitter site.
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