QUESTIONS THAT BEG FOR ANSWERS

Your Commander is a child of Chicago’s south side, and a product of the Chicago Public School system. Living in the Avalon Park/Chatham neighbor- hood one learned early the definition of sensatory adaptation, because when the wind blew from the northwest we smelled the Union Stock Yards aromas, and when it blew from the southeast we were inundated by the smells of the huge garbage dump along Doty Avenue.

I remember the administrations of Mayors Ed Kelly, Martin Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, David Orr, Eugene Sawyer, and Richard M. Daley. Scandals occurred during every Chicago Mayor’s term, and several ex-Illinois Governors moved on to serve jail time, so the famous stench of political life in Chicago is something that never leaves one’s nostrils. The suspicious reek of politics in Chicago now has reached our nation’s capital.

We now have a new president serving his first few months in office. He is a true product of the Chicago/Illinois political machine. The president won our national election with a convincing margin in the popular vote, and in the Electoral College, too. Barack Obama thus should deserve the support of all Americans because he is our elected leader, but legitimate questions linger that cry for complete answers. During the campaign Obama repeatedly stated that he and his administration would go to Washington to bring CHANGE and TRANSPARENCY to our government, so it is appropriate for the electorate to expect those two promises be delivered.

Just today I heard sharp criticism directed against anyone who questions virtually anything about President Obama is a messenger of hate, intolerance and racism. That comment came from a highly emotional Shepard Smith on his Fox News channel program. I object to his comment and told him so in an email. Let me state for the hundredth time, I do not hate anyone, I continue to believe in the Ten Commandments, and I demand adherence to our Constitution that guarantees everyone be treated equally. With that in mind, I have the right to ask legitimate questions of all our elected officials, and if anyone thinks I am thus a hate monger or racist, they can just wallow in their own narrow minded world.

Repeatedly in my writings I have expressed my desire to support my new president, but I must admit that thus far he is making my endorsement increasingly difficult to warrant. Experience has taught me to consider all politicians’ words with skepticism, but I cannot accept deception, the absence of total disclosure, or worse any dishonesty.

With a world in turmoil and the American economy in stress, our president needs the strong support of his Congress, his electorate, and other world leaders. Currently Obama support is increasingly uncertain from a growing number of concerned citizens. Several very important questions continue to haunt Obama’s integrity, and authenticity. Why Mr. President do you not provide convincing transparent answers to the following very important and relevant questions?

1. Why have your Occidental College records not been released?
2. Why have your Columbia College records not been released?
3. Why are your Columbia thesis papers not available?
4. Why are your Harvard College records sealed?
5. What is the reason for your Selective Service Registration not being made available for review?
6. Why are your medical records not being released?
7. Why is your Illinois State Senate schedule not available?
8. What is the reason for not releasing your Illinois Senate records?
9. What is the justification for not releasing your Law practice client list?
10. Why are Certified Copies of your original Birth certificate not available?
11. Why is your embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth unavailable?
12. Why is your baptism certificate not available?
13. Where are articles you published as editor of the Harvard Law Review, or as a Professor at the University of Chicago?

While not an elected government official, our president’s wife, Michelle Obama, made some controversial statements during the campaign. When she stated that she was never proud of her country “until now,” many Americans became aroused. Those words and others have lead to a justifiable interest in her writings while a student at Princeton University. Why are her academic papers not available for public observation?

A new inquiry has come forward asking what passport was used by Barack Obama in 1981 when he traveled to Pakistan, Indonesia and New York. This question could be easily answered by presenting the passport. If he was traveling with a British passport that would provide proof that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims, and if he was traveling with an Indonesian passport that would tend to prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, when he was adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.

To a casual observer there appears to be a double standard applied to proper vetting of our current leadership. All candidates should expect to receive identical scrutiny when running for the Presidency whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent. I believe that even the most ardent supporters of President Obama would agree that the refusal to respond fully to any of my thirteen unanswered questions tarnishes his pledge for CHANGE AND TRANSPARENCY in his administration. Do you wonder why these questions remain unaddressed even well into the Obama administration?

Your Commander, and many other American’s feel we taxpayers deserve a proper accounting from all our leaders. Deception and arrogance breeds discontent with growing bitter dissension. Remember what your mother told you years ago, “honesty is the best policy,” but it has apparently not applied in the world of politics. I wonder why the American voting taxpayers permit our leadership to dodge full, honest disclosure?

COMMANDER GRANGER