{"id":1679,"date":"2008-12-14T03:07:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T03:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/?p=1679"},"modified":"2017-08-18T03:25:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T03:25:47","slug":"by-any-other-name-ii-ii-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/by-any-other-name-ii-ii-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;. . . by any other name&#8221; [II.ii.1-2]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. will be inaugurated.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s Hussein.\u00a0\u00a0Tune in to any number of news channels and watch the pundits argue over the public use of his middle name.\u00a0\u00a0Somehow\u2014despite its being tradition for the full name to be used\u2014it has become a minor scandal.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m curious, though, about why.\u00a0\u00a0Is the obvious coincidence of names between our Hawaiian-born Christian and an executed Muslim dictator too much for Americans to handle?\u00a0\u00a0Does it play upon our irrational fears as conservative\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2008\/02\/26\/mccain-supporter-repeated_n_88542.html\">Bill Cunningham depended on when he repeated the name<\/a>\u00a0over and over at a Cincinnati rally for McCain?\u00a0\u00a0Is it not Saddam that lives as a ghost in our President-elect but the fear of Islam in general?\u00a0\u00a0Or is it the linguistic nexus between Obama and Osama?<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/Saddam-Hussein-01.jpg?resize=250%2C299&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"250\" height=\"299\" \/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/obama8.jpg?resize=239%2C298&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"239\" height=\"298\" \/>To be sure, there are emotional connections to names and words which defy rational thinking.\u00a0\u00a0Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2155434\/\">Slate.com suggests<\/a> that the name \u201cHussein\u201d ranks among the worst of middle names.\u00a0\u00a0So by this thinking, let us be grateful for the great US political leaders who do not carry any names which might offend our prejudiced sensibilities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Let us be thankful that none of our leaders share the names of\u00a0<strong>infamous serial killers\u00a0<\/strong>like Harold Shipman or Randy Steven Kraft, of Gary Leon Ridgway or Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy.\u00a0Hopefully none will ever remind us of the killer nurse Charles Cullen, of David Berkowitz or Jeffrey Dahmer, of Richard Ramirez or Robert Lee Yates.\u00a0\u00a0None will ever be linked to Pedro Lopez (who may have killed as many as 300 in Colombia), Peter Sutcliffe, Joseph Paul Franklin, Herbert Mullin, or Henry Lee Lucas, Christopher Wilder or Michael Bruce Ross, Peter Manuel or Derrick Todd Lee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yes, a US President with one of those names would surely stir our moral sensibilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Let\u2019s be grateful that our President is not near the nuclear button if he shares a name with Charles Whitman (who shot dozens at the University of Texas) or Jeff Weise (who did the same at Red Lake High School).\u00a0\u00a0And let\u2019s keep our leader clear of names like Eric and Dylan of Columbine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The US President should have the moral guidance which earns the respect of our citizens, so let\u2019s be careful that he is neither a Jim nor a Jones, a Charles or a Manson, a David Koresh of Waco or Jeff Lundgren of Ohio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To sustain our democracy, be certain that he carries no names like Manuel (Noriega of Panama), Francisco (Franco of Spain) or Simon (Bolivar of Peru).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>And it goes without saying that he should not share a name with a US terrorist, let alone a foreign one.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore, let us Constitutionally amend the Presidential requirements to ban candidates with names like Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Theodore Kaczynski, or Eric Robert Rudolph.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sure, the FBI\u2019s most wanted terrorists list includes other Arab names, like Adam Yahihe Gadahn and Mohammed Ali Hamadei.\u00a0\u00a0Until they are caught and justice is served, let no President have such frightening names as, um, Mohammed and, er, Adam.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/thomas-johnnie.jpg?resize=86%2C114&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"86\" height=\"114\" \/>Fortunately, readers of this blog are unlikely to be named John Thomas, whose name now appears on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/query.nytimes.com\/gst\/fullpage.html?res=9A06E7DE143AF934A2575AC0A9659C8B63\">Master Terrorist List<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0If our President were so named, he would be unable to travel by air, just like 70-year-old African American woman\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetravelinsider.info\/masterterroristlist.htm\">Johnnie Thomas<\/a>\u00a0(and every other variation of the name).\u00a0\u00a0By the way, that list now contains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/privacy\/35968prs20080714.html\">over one million names<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have been praised for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2008\/POLITICS\/02\/28\/tennessee.gop\/index.html\">rightfully denouncing<\/a>\u00a0the use of Obama\u2019s name by Cunningham and by the Tennessee Republican Party.\u00a0\u00a0The use of the name, they said, was \u201cdisrespectful\u201d and \u201cdistracting.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0To me, however, that argument also suggests that Obama\u2019s shameful name should be buried, omitted.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/ben_franklin.jpg?resize=200%2C236&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"200\" height=\"236\" \/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/chapelle.jpg?resize=179%2C237&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"179\" height=\"237\" \/>Fortunately for our future President, his own name strikes no such fear in his own heart.\u00a0\u00a0Blatantly flaunting the name of his Kenyan grandfather, he has decided to use his full name at the inauguration, a name Semitic in its origins, just like General Omar Bradley, Cabinet secretary Donna Shalala, and\u2014um\u2014<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/opinion\/feature\/2008\/02\/28\/hussein\/index1.html\">Benjamin (Ben Yamin) Franklin<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0The nerve.<\/p>\n<p>No, Obama has decided to allow his name to remind us that we are a 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century America of mixed heritages, and our Muslim traditions are at least as vital to our values as they have been to the world\u2019s.\u00a0Perhaps one day we will not wince at the names of Islam:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maybe we will learn about Zakir Naik, the religious scholar from India; or Aminah Assilmi, who converted from Southern Baptist to Islam and is now President of the International Union of Muslim Women.\u00a0Perhaps we will admire a Benazir Bhutto for being the first female Muslim head of state in Pakistan and we will study the chemistry of Jabir Ibn Haiyan as we do the physics of Newton.\u00a0Will philosopher Abu\u2019l Waleed Muhammad Ibn Rushd ever appear in our textbooks?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oddly, we have less trouble admiring the Muslim athlete.\u00a0Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar are long favorites, as are Imran Khan of the cricket world and Nigerian NBA star Hakeem Olajuwan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>And we are okay with celebrity Muslims, so long as don\u2019t think about them too much.\u00a0\u00a0We love the jazz of John Coltrane, the ballad rock of Cat Stevens, and even the pop nonsense of Michael and Jermaine Jackson.\u00a0\u00a0We laugh through multiple seasons of Dave Chappelle.\u00a0And we are willing to allow political writer Fareed Zakaria a place on CNN.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But be careful.\u00a0Muslims have been sneaking into our politics long before Obama.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, the radical Republicans of California ran<a href=\"https:\/\/www.adherents.com\/people\/pc\/Eric_Carlson.html\">Eric Carlson<\/a>, a blind Muslim Native American, for US Representative.\u00a0(Fortunately, we would never allow a President to be named Eric or Carlson.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Names conjure subjective power, and we must ourselves decide if an incarnation of a name will cause us fear or inspiration.\u00a0Every Jesus is not a Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Every Muhammad is not the Muhammad.\u00a0\u00a0And a new Hussein will lead the most powerful democracy in the world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. will be inaugurated.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s Hussein.\u00a0\u00a0Tune in to any number of news channels and watch the pundits argue over the public use of his middle name.\u00a0\u00a0Somehow\u2014despite its being tradition for the full name to be used\u2014it has become a minor scandal. I\u2019m curious, though, about why.\u00a0\u00a0Is the obvious coincidence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,248,256],"tags":[346,569,560,568,567],"class_list":["post-1679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-culture-criticism","category-politics-and-ethics","tag-history","tag-name","tag-obama","tag-oresident","tag-osama"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/obama-osama.jpeg?fit=400%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1671,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/the-west-wind-is-rhetoric\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":0},"title":"The West Wind is Rhetoric","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Oct 12","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cHe\u2019s an Arab,\u201d she said of Obama.\u00a0\u00a0And poor Senator John McCain quickly took away the microphone, shaking his head. Senator McCain then did exactly what he needed to do: he described Obama as a decent man with whom he had drastically different opinions.\u00a0\u00a0Sadder still, the Republican crowd booed his remarks.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/mccain2.jpg?fit=432%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/feedback-loop\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":1},"title":"Feedback Loop","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Nov 16","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I mentioned in some of my classes that, psychologically, we are the stars of our own movies.\u00a0\u00a0By this I meant that we first of all see ourselves as the protagonists of a story, the main characters, the ones we imagine must win or succeed in the end.\u00a0\u00a0This is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/mythusa.jpg?fit=533%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/mythusa.jpg?fit=533%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/mythusa.jpg?fit=533%2C300&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":794,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/opportunity-and-anxiety\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":2},"title":"Opportunity and Anxiety","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jan 30","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write this, Hosni Mubarak's resignation video plays on YouTube. It's a surreal idea, imagining somehow that I can recline on my sofa with a laptop and witness an historic moment of regime change from a major US ally. And since I am watching it virtually as a \"live\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/021211_0321_Opportunity2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1756,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/inventing-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":3},"title":"Inventing Value:\u00a0 Collectibles and the Grotesque","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2010 Jul 29","format":false,"excerpt":"I think\u00a0I saw it first as a friend and I were killing time in a mall before the beginning of a forgettable movie: The Barack Obama Collectible Plate. I stopped, considering the design and realizing that probably 51 companies had created 132 different designs of collectible Obama plates, now\u2014not two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/072910_0420_InventingVa6.png?fit=401%2C228&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1629,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/accepting-responsibility\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":4},"title":"Accepting Responsibility","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Jun 1","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent most of Saturday watching the Democratic National Committee Rules Committee debate the fate of Michigan and Florida\u2019s democratic primary delegates.\u00a0\u00a0I know, I know\u2014for many of us, watching my toenails grow may have been more entertaining. Nevertheless, I am fascinated by election processes.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m proud of the RO Model UN\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/votes.jpg?fit=448%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/on-daggits-and-darfur-obama-and-adama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":5},"title":"On Daggits and Darfur, Obama and Adama","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Mar 21","format":false,"excerpt":"Truly, my first thought when I heard that the cast of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica\u00a0was debating at the real United Nations was that we've finally lost our sense of reality. And, on reflection, I admit I don't think I'm wrong. If you are not following all the latest news from the world of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ChizBlog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/032209_0251_OnDaggittsa1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}