Memorable words

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama hit a bump in the road last week when he said what appears to be some pointed words at we folk who hail from small Midwestern towns. If you missed what he said, you're watching way too much reality TV. In short, Obama said that we small-town hicks are bitter because of the overall state of the nation and, as a result, we cling to our guns and religion out of frustration. For added emphasis, he also said we don't like people who are not like us and we're anti-immigration and anti-trade.

Now I did not quote the senator from Illinois word for word, but the sentiments are the same. And, as you would expect, his seemingly elitist viewpoint was hot fodder for the political wags this week. His remarks are likely to haunt him for quite a while.

But Obama -- to his credit -- had it half right. I suspect a great deal of we yokels are bitter. But Obama has it all wrong when it comes to the reasons for our bitterness. Schooled at Yale and breathing the rarefied air of Washington, D.C., has not offered the senator an accurate perspective of the small-town mentality.

Many of us are indeed bitter. But we're bitter because politicians like Obama and others want a greater role in our day-to-day lives. For the most part, we want to pay our taxes, raise our children and live our lives without the government telling us what they believe our lives need. We're not anti-immigration; we're anti-illegal immigration. The senator needs to understand that distinction. Follow the path outlined by the laws of this great nation and we'll welcome you with open arms. Try to sneak beneath those laws and we get bitter, because we know who is going to pay the medical bill when you break your leg and who is going to pay the insurance bill when you have an auto accident.

And Obama is going to have some explaining to do when he says we are so bitter we cling to our guns and religion. It's when the government tries to control those guns or that religion that we become bitter.

The real zinger in my book was when Obama said we have "antipathy to people who aren't like us." Now antipathy -- if I remember correctly from school -- means you don't like someone or something. If Obama was intent on dividing this nation, he hit the mark.

I confess, I do have antipathy to people who aren't like me. I have antipathy toward those capable of working but who choose to live off the tax dollars of those who do work. I have antipathy to those who don't obey the laws of this nation. And I have antipathy toward those who constantly play the victim when, in fact, that is little more than a lame excuse to receive something for nothing.

I strongly suspect that this was not the meaning that Senator Obama intended. I suspect he wanted to draw a clear distinction between people. And he hit the nail squarely on the head.

He could have said -- but he made the remarks in San Francisco -- that people in the urban centers are bitter. He could have said they are bitter so that is why they take up guns and kill each other in record numbers. He could have said their bitterness left them with a strong disdain of formal education, which is why test scores in the urban centers are dismal. He could have said that bitterness brought the urban neighborhoods to the brink of anarchy.

But he didn't.

I hope that all of those bitter, anti-immigration, gun-toting, religious zealots will remember those words come November. I plan on clinging to my antipathy all the way to the ballot box.

Michael Jensen of Sikeston, Mo., is a Southeast Missourian columnist and the publisher of the Standard Democrat.