Letter of complaint

By letter to the editor

Gimmeabreak! You get a lot of mileage out of Obama walking in front of the beer bunch. Thank G-d Obama wasn't picking his nose. Or, worse, helping Gates walk down the stairs. I think it is ridiculous the associations you make from this photo. But it seems you have other gripes against Obama. Lets hope it doesn't come because of other photos you have seen.

Ray Berthiaum (Memphis, TN)

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Dear Ray,

Thanks for writing.

It is a moment crystallized in time. I wouldn’t treat an infirm guest, much less an old friend, this way, and neither would many other people. Would you?

BO used Gates for the photo op, and was done with him. The image expresses this inescapable reality very well. Symbols can be brutal. You don’t see it, the White House folks didn’t see it, and that’s fine.

The rest of us get it.

I encourage you to keep telling people there’s nothing wrong with the way Obama behaved. Heck, please take up a collection, and buy a full page ad in the New York Times, with the photo, and the caption,