What's in a name?

I used to go to school with a girl whose last name was Hussein - hey, that rhymes!

Anyway, she was a real sweet girl, who I believed had family ties back to Pakistan, or a similar middle eastern country.

When I first met her, I'll admit that I felt the urge to crack a couple of Saddam type jokes, but as I got to know her, those just didn't seem appropriate.

Anyway, so this morning one of my conservative facebook friends posts a question. Apparently a group of Democrats are trying to lobby to keep President Obama's middle name from appearing in text books, while a group of Republican's are trying to keep it in.

My response - and I don't usually comment on the status updates of friends with whom I disagree, what that it should be left in.

The other comments were all from the right wing folks, and ranged from "Keep the name, remove the man" to "Why worry, unless you aren't living up to your heritage?"

There also seemed to be a few folks asking... It's just a name?!? Why not keep it in.

Like I said, my thoughts are... Keep it in.

The problem is see though, is that the president's middle name has been abused by right wing nuts, who have been using it to insinuate that by having a name which is shared by a brutal dictator, somehow the president is guilty by association. Kind of like after the brutal murder of a kid in Utah last week by a guy with the last name of Sloop, we were now to round up anyone with that last name as child killers - It's just ridiculous.

Ultimately I think both sides need a swift kick to the head. Trying to link the President to a dictator, purely because they share a name is childish and petty, but unfortunately that seems to be the right wing response to losing an election. Childish and petty.

Trying to remove the name from textbooks, is an overreaction on the part of the Dems too. It's his name, I'm sure it has significance to him... Hiding history is never a good thing. Yes the opposition are being a bunch of whiny 2 year olds about it, but that's their problem, not yours!

Can't we all just grow up, and start treating each other like adults?