Opinion: Ignore Rush and Criers of Reverse Racism

(July 12) -- Unless you live on some remote island that requires an intense psychological evaluation before admittance, chances are, you've encountered some mentally deranged individual on a street, bus stop or liquor store who spouts out the most ridiculous statements in order to grab your attention.

Something like "Jesus will return to the earth on the back of a Tyrannosaurus rex to seek revenge for the popularity of Lady Gaga."

For me, along with others who know better, Rush Limbaugh is the political equivalent of such lunacy. In fact, the idea of Christ on a T-rex going goo-goo for Gaga actually makes more sense to me than anything that comes out of the conservative commentator's mouth.

Limbaugh has tried yet again to claw his way into national headlines by doing what he does best: making sensationalist statements drenched in the stench of racism.

Last week, the unfortunately popular radio talk show host declared that President Barack Obama purposely dropped the ball on our economy in an effort to pay America back for its racial oppression.

On "Operation Payback," Limbaugh said, "I think we face something we've never faced before in the country -- and that is, we're now governed by people who do not like the country, who do not have the same reverence for it that we do."

He went on to compare the president to the members of the New Black Panther Party. He also said that if President Obama weren't black, "he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu."

These comments come on the heels of news that Obama is losing support among white voters.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that Obama's support among white voters dropped to just above 40 percent from a post-election high of 60 percent.

If not for the fact that Obama was elected with 43 percent of the white vote -- a Democratic norm for some time now -- I might have given the speculation that Obama and the Democratic Party are facing a white flight a second thought.

I'd pay the criers of "reverse racism" -- angered over the idea of a 10 percent surcharge on the use of ultraviolet tanning beds -- the same courtesy if they didn't sound so stupid.

On the ultra-pertinent issue of the tan tax, Doc Thompson -- a fill-in for Glenn Beck -- said, "I now know the pain of racism."

Thompson's pain is like comparing a thumb tack to the finger with a bullet to one's body.

Speaking of bullets, if there's anything to be enraged about, it's not stupid assertions about a self-sabotaging president or a racist tanning tax. No, it's the idea that even in 2010 a police officer can put a bullet in an unarmed black man and not be convicted of any serious charge.

Oscar Grant was fatally shot while lying face-down by former BART officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, Calif., on New Year's Day 2009. Instead of the more serious charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or even voluntary manslaughter, on July 8 an all-white jury convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter.

Then there's a new poll that shows fewer opportunities exist for minority children, along with the recent immigration law passed in Arizona. It's quite apparent that racism in this country has not been reversed.

So the next time you hear Rush or Glenn Beck's understudy rant about racism, do yourself a favor and treat them like any other screaming street wanderer in dire need of a prescription: tune them out.

They clearly know nothing of what they speak.