684 Obama The Pest

684 Obama The Pest

That guy Obama is getting to be a pest. Day in and day out, he or someone representing him sends out emails. They congratulate us for supporting him and they encourage us to keep supporting him and they tell us what his administration is doing and what we can do to help. Probably, there's a way to un-subscribe. But, then, there's something of a thrill to get a bunch of emails from the President of the United States, even if he doesn't write them and probably doesn't read them before they're sent.

Never heard from Bush. Or Clinton. Or the Other Bush. Or Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, or any of the others. Of course, there wasn't too much email around before Reagan, so you can forgive the earlier guys. They didn't pester us. And maybe you never wanted to hear from any of them, anyway. Can't easily avoid it now. At least on Twitter, you don't have to "follow" Sarah Palin or Newt or any of those other wacko "tweeters."

One good thing about all of this: Tweets are closed circuit. They talk to one another. But not to anyone else. You not in with the in-crowd, you miss out. More of us, by thousands, tens of thousands or millions miss out. We aren't missing anything. But the pest Obama is another matter. He doesn't bother with"tweets" or Facebook or "linked in," at least not yet. He just sends emails to everyone.

Well, he IS the President. But let's hope his birdshot approach doesn't catch on. We could soon be receiving unsolicited e-mails from Wal Mart, the Republican National Committee, The American Cancer Society, NAMBLA and the Vatican.

Of course, it's nice to see the words "Barack Obama" in the "from" column. Kind of adds a sense of prestige to our pathetic in boxes. Makes us feel like we ARE something. After all, the President wouldn't be writing to us if we weren't "somebody."

But then there's this: back in the 1950s, your correspondent wrote to President Eisenhower objecting to the phrase "Under God's" insertion into the pledge of allegiance. Someone -- surely not the President -- wrote back explaining the rationale. And that was snail mail and therefore more authentic than today's e-mail. But no more sensible.

Shrapnel:

--When we were civil rights-ers, the other side reacted with gut hatred. The tea partiers are doing the same now as we attempt to alter the status quo, but they're as wrong as the lynch mobs of yesterday and for the same reasons.

--Nonetheless, many of us react to them as they did to the civil rights-ers. How DARE they come in here like this and do these terrible things! Goes to show that human emotion is human emotions... but they're STILL wrong.

--Had a Starbuck's coffee for the first time in ages the other day. It still tastes like burning tires. And it still ain't cheap.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2010