More Than a ‘love tap’

Dear editor:

Mary Robinson holds that what our tweeter president said about the four congresswomen (“go back where you came from” or words to that effect) was just a love tap compared with what Michelle Obama said “to the entire black population” from the White House. She is reported to have said, “For the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country.”

Wow! What insight! Mary sees in this single sentence from Obama’s speech that Obama disparages all blacks.

While most of America would probably see in what she said an expression of joy, of happiness, of pride, Mary sees condemnation and contempt. Quite often I am unable to see what she sees.

For example, she says that “Donald’s remarks were a love tap, to four women who bad-mouth everything American.” From what left-field corner did this come? “Badmouth”? And they did it to “everything American”? Could there possibly be a bit of exaggeration here?

As is most often the case, she does not cite any statements in context. I did locate similar sentiments in Breitbart.

But this is often the case. Sometimes I read what she and a few others (and there are just a few – there seem to be more because they are loud and shocking) throw out there to the Sentinel-Record readers and I think, “Gee! How awful! Can that be true?”

But then I ask my computer to find the statement or statements, in context, exactly the way the “disparaging” comments were made.

Mary, you imply that Michelle Obama, the wife of one of America’s great presidents, made this statement in a disparaging way after she got to the White House. You say that she “demeaned, brushed aside, and insulted every black man, woman and child in America.” Personally, I would welcome comments from anyone who feels demeaned or insulted by her statement about being proud of her country. What a stretch!

In addition, Mary, when I researched this speech of Michelle Obama’s, I found that she actually said what you quoted. But she did not say it from the White House, as you implied. You interpreted her statement this way: “If you don’t make it to the White House… and you are black, you have nothing to be proud of.” Reliable sources tell us that her speech was made before her husband became president.

C. G. Smith Hot Springs