What do you expect?

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Although I am selective about the movies I watch, I have always appreciated a good motion picture. Among my favorite movies are the biblical epics of my youth. When combined with the, then, newly developed CinemaScope projection process, with the exception of all white casts, these biblical movies gave new meaning and brought stories of the Bible to life. Like the Bible, these movies told ancient stories, but also brought a practical understanding of events in everyday life.

“The Robe,” “Samson and Delilah,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” and “Ben Hur” were some of the movies that I really enjoyed. If I had to narrow my choice to one favorite of these biblical movies, I would probably choose “The Ten Commandments.” This choice is not based on Charlton Heston being a favorite actor. Instead, the depiction of the emergence of a downtrodden race from slavery through the challenges of learning to be free had a deep and intrinsic personal appeal.

In the Ten Commandments movie, the late Edward G. Robinson, was cast as the villainous Dathan. Like Moses and the rest of the slaves, Dathan was a Hebrew who, along with his brother, Abiram belonged to a group in Egypt and in the wilderness who were purposed to impose obstacles to the goals of God and Moses. Wikipedia describes their activities thusly: “they did not cease their hostility to Moses, and opposed his first endeavor to deliver Israel. It was Abiram and Dathan who were the immediate cause of the bitter reproaches made to Moses and Aaron…Dathan and Abiram tried to induce the people at the Red Sea to return; and in the failure of this attempt, they made an effort, through disregard of Moses’ commands, to incite the people against their leader… they were impertinent and insulting in their speech to Moses, who, in his modesty and love of peace, went to them himself in order to dissuade them from their pernicious designs.”

Upon reflection, the well-acted movie depiction of Dathan and the well-written Wikipedia description of his activities led to the realization that the same seditious behaviors run rampant and viciously among the current crop of national Republican leaders. Since the beginning of his first term in office, Republicans have been purposed to thwart any goal of President Obama, even if it mirrored Republican objectives.

“Our principle goal is to make him a one-term President!” “You lie!” “He was born in Kenya!” “His birth certificate is a forgery!” “He’s just a community organizer!” “He’s not a legitimate President!” “He’s anti-American!” “He’s a communist!” “He’s a socialist!” “He hates white people!” These are just a miniscule number of insults that President Obama has had to endure during his five years in office. And “they were impertinent and insulting in their speech.”

The latest tirade of insults comes on the heels of Russia’s invasion of the Crimean region of the Ukraine. In my entire life, I have not heard the words “weak and feckless” uttered as many times in the same breath as in the last week. Although Russia made a similar illegal incursion into the European country of Georgia during the Bush years, Republicans now declare that the policies of the Obama Administration have led to this style of adventurism. According to them, because of President Obama’s diminished persona, the U.S. is no longer respected in the world community.

I am not the wisest person in the world, but I do know that if Republican opponents place political one-upmanship above national security and choose to degrade the twice-elected President in the public domain, it is impossible to expect his natural adversaries to respect him anymore than is demonstrated here at home. Unapologetically, I ask: “What do you expect?!?”

This article originally published in the March 2, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.