One thing that still frustrates me from time to time is continued, uninformed ignorance. Last week while leaving a gas station I heard a statement I thought was finally over.

"I'm not voting for a Muslim."
- elderly woman

Honestly, I believed that kind of narrow minded, ill-informed viewpoint had finally been smothered and the thought that there are still people in America under this assumption appals me.

To make matters worse, this morning on facebook I came across a group titled "the country was founded in god we trust not Allah so FORGET OBAMA!!" In the group's recent news:

"All the same I have discovered something that the court doesn't know, the fact that I pray to God in American (HIS language) makes me more American than other people. "In God we Trust" means that I, as a white Christian, am entitled to reign over lesser Americans, and I'll be [CENSORED] if those lesser Americans try to elect some uppity [CENSORED], elitist that tries to act like the universe wasn't invented solely for the pleasure and comfort of Real Americans. (TM.) Americhrist Over All!"
- Josh Beran (UNL)

When I read this, my stomach wrenched.

The group is ridiculous and has had no activity for some months now. The realization that there are still members in association with this group and the views it stands behind is horrible. Another prime example of this continued ignorance was found in the chat thread of the facebook group "Stop Barack Obama (One Million Strong and Growing)" photo 24 concerning Obams's election.

"Because my dear friend its the easy way to get the other terrorists into the country and take us over. the terrorists want obama to win because hes muslim. just like them."
- Kathryn Hughes, June 21st, 2008

An older example of this dare I say "Backwoods" type of commentating I discovered in a youtube video back in February. The video was taken by Rocketboom field correspondent and The Uptake producer Chuck Olsen who talks to Christian Fundamentalists about Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, and the End Times in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Needless to say, the video is so horrible the viewer can't help but laugh at the level of ignorance in the interviewees answers. In the video, Obama is accused of wanting to take oath from the Koran, not saluting the flag and other trite, misinformed statements.

One of the members of the church's congregation even says that her information was from "one of our church members who has been keeping up with what Obama's comments are."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpJfWOWkB2Q

It is scary to know that there are individuals like these across the country with such a deformed scope of truth. There is no excuse. The fact of the matter is individuals need to hold themselves to a higher standard of knowledge and not ignorant assumptions and rumors. If an individual is going to say something, fact check it and know the truth of the information before hand.

Ignorance = No Respect