Head to Head: Trouble brewing over coffee cup salute

I’m not usually one for political bickering, especially not in a public medium, but something needs to be said to those who aren’t supporters or fans of our president.

It is late 2014. President Barrack Obama has two years left in office. Get over it.

It always baffles me that people genuinely believe that a change in president will make much of a difference in the way our country operates. Much like leveling accusations at people (or at a newspaper) without any proof is an excellent way to make yourself seem like an ignorant fool, so too is being outraged by absolutely nothing. Last week, the internet, Fox News, and those with nothing better to do the world over universally cried out against a great injustice. What had shaken the nation to its core and instilled a deep-seated mistrust in our Commander-in-Chief? The fact that our president saluted two Marines with a coffee cup in his hand.

Wait, really? You can’t be serious. Okay, okay, let’s cut right through it and get to the facts. The president has never been required to salute the troops. Dozens of presidents prior to Obama never did the salute. It was popularized, but not introduced, by actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush did the salute numerous times with a dog under his arm, but for some reason, that’s different. From a practical standpoint, what exactly is the man supposed to do? Put his coffee cup on the ground with a theatrical flourish and salute the Marines?

I’d say he’s a bit busy dealing with the slightly-more-important issues in Syria and Iraq. In truth, I don’t think there was anything Obama could have done differently that wouldn’t have been just as needlessly scrutinized. Congratulations to everyone who figured out from this incident that Obama hates America, wants ISIS to win, and is the worst president in the history of ever. Your ability to pull information that supports your viewpoints out of trivialities is remarkable.

In all seriousness, an issue of respect may be there, but it’s not nearly as serious an issue as people are making it. The real issue with the whole ordeal is less the salute and more the complete and total eradication of logic when politics, religion, or anything mildly hot-button is brought up. I watch perfectly rational people turn into raving knuckle-draggers at the mention of Obama, “in God we trust,” or welfare. I have bad news for everyone: you are not entitled to your opinion. Sorry to spoil the fun, but entitlement is defined by Dictionary.com as “the fact of having a right to something.” Considering that it’s from opinions that wonderful traits like racism, sexism, and zealotry are birthed, I’d say it’s about time we revise this idea.

You are entitled to a well-informed opinion. Sound fair? You have infinite information at your fingertips at nearly all times. Most people are constantly plugged into a phone or computer anyway. For the more old-fashioned, you have access to a mysterious relic known as a library. There is literally zero excuse in the year 2014 to be fighting and defending an opinion that has no factual ground. Nothing in your birth, bloodline, or “God-given” grace gives you the right to be offended when someone with facts disagrees with you on matters you know nothing about. Don’t use the word “entitled” when speaking about your opinion.

For that matter, if you’re going to be outraged by something, be consistent about it. Fox News correspondent Eric Bolling reamed the president for not having respect for troops, and then barely an hour later, asked if the first female pilot in Syria would be considered “boobs on the ground.” Ignorance is one thing. Hypocrisy is an entirely different ball game.

I’m sure this article will get accusations leveled my way about being a socialist communist card-carrying lefty. That’s fine. I’m not looking for world peace, nor am I here to impress. I’m here to beg for a little common sense and consistency in conversation. If that isn’t alright, then we have bigger problems than a president’s need for caffeine.

I’ve said this before: I grew up on a cattle ranch in rural Nebraska, I’ve sacrificed seven years of my life in service to this country, and I have a sticker on my desk in the newsroom that reads, “Coal, Guns, Freedom.” Call me a filthy liberal; I dare you.

So it probably comes at no surprise that I was one of the many fine patriots outraged by Obama’s cavalier coffee cup salute. Considering that coffee is about the only sacred thing left in this country, for Obama to disrespect a drink like that is so egregious, I feel we need to bring this issue to the forefront of public discussion…

…Just kidding, I honestly don’t care about the President’s sloppy salute. We have bigger problems to worry about here.

I wrote an article last fall about how the media gushed when they learned the reason Obama quit smoking; he was afraid of the first lady. The angle I used was that our news media has been failing its obligation to keep our society informed; by focusing on the minutia, they continue to feed our ignorant and disgusting obsession with the political personality cult. In my eyes the upset is distracting drivel; let’s pause for a second and queue a round of applause for my fellow talking heads; we continue to be functionally useless.

Around this time last year the conflagration in Syria was raging, but the news media mostly ignored that story because videos of headless U.S. journalists weren’t popping up on social media.

It’s now a year later, Syria is still burning, and we’re still stuck discussing some stupid, insignificant thing the President did. If this is what liberals consider “progress,” you can count me out.

I am certain that criticism will always be one of the throes of public office; if you doubt the validity of that statement, just ask any member of last year’s Student Senate. Regardless of whether you love or hate the President, he still commands the world’s most powerful military. It’s because he has power that the news media maintains its professional obligation to publicize, scrutinize, and when necessary, critique his every action, ad nauseam.

But instead of critiquing something petty like the President’s saluting skills, let’s first discuss where that video actually came from: the official White House Instagram account. This story is of note because the very office whose job is to manage the public’s perception of the President has painted him to out be an idiot. No comment.

To be fair, I can almost imagine being the underpaid press intern assigned to shoot the video of the President climbing down from the helicopter. I can also imagine how easy it would have been to upload the video, not realizing how Obama’s coffee cup salute would spark volumes of criticism from the crybabies at Fox & Friends.

I can also picture myself as an equally underpaid intern working at Fox News. I’d spend hours scouring White House press releases; hunting for something the morning show anchors could rant about, but that video would be my godsend. I’d hand off the footage to the show’s producers, then wait on my Pulitzer for harrowing and tireless investigative reporting.

Perhaps that was a little too hyperbolic, but I think what makes this story interesting is not that the President gave a jacked-up salute, but that we are even talking about it amidst all of the other things that are wrong with our government.

There are numerous points that we can use to criticize the President, like the fact that the bulk of our digital communications are still being intercepted, analyzed, and stored using illegal means. Or how about we discuss the mountains of dead civilians, which can be attributed to the administration’s secret drone strike program? It might be nice to hear legitimate criticism directed against the President for a change, but the investigative work required is both time intensive and quite expensive.

Conservative commentators won’t bother climbing that tree, especially when they can just  grab at whatever the White House leaves hanging on the lower branches.