Religious prejudice is, unfortunately, a part of American presidential campaigns. Thomas Jefferson suffered it. Barack Obama suffers it, and Mitt Romney, a Mormon, may well suffer it. One man who suffered it worse than most is Al Smith – the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate.
On August 6, 2012, President Obama signed the “Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012.” The new law offers extended care to service members based at Camp Lejeune when contaminated water caused major medical issues, and the law prohibits protests at military funerals in the two hours immediately prior to a funeral.
However, a missing factor was the mention of an issue debated in Congress for nearly five years, with the latest hearings taking in place in May 2012 concerning the Native American veterans’ healthcare.
As the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree, Susan LaFlesche Picotte was a shining example to tribal members everywhere. She proved it was possible to lift oneself out of the morass of the reservation system and live a useful life. However, in proving that point, Picotte literally worked herself into an early grave.
The 2012 Presidential Election will go down as one of the most blatantly negative and factually misleading campaigns in modern times. What makes this characterization particularly troubling is the pervasive proliferation of the ugliness and falsehood through the multi-media at our fingertips.
Today’s technology makes no distinction between lies and truth, both reach a busy, preoccupied, and unsuspecting public instantaneously. A public confounded by the fact that we are now a society who would rather be entertained than informed as we go about the business of governing.
