Obama and Transparency

President Obama states he wants to have the most transparent government ever. He wrote a memo that reads: My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. I believe you should lead by example. That is why I do not understand why Obama does not release his birth certificate, or his college papers.

The media wants to demonize the people who are requesting the information calling them “Birthers.” The media does not understand why these people are in such an uproar about where Obama was born. Perhaps they are unaware that according to the Constitution you have to be a natural born citizen to be the President of the United States.

President Obama has released a document called a Certificate of Live Birth, wherein it states he was born in Hawaii, but it is not the birth certificate. That would be sufficient if the original birth certificate were lost or destroyed. But that is not the case. The original does exist but Obama refuses to disclose it. That is what I find puzzling. Here is a man who in order to gain the public trust, claims he is for transparency, yet he refuses to release the birth certificate or his college papers. Maybe he doesn’t understand the meaning to the word transparency, which according to Webster’s dictionary means clearness, to make bright or clear; to make evident; to free from accusation. When there is a contradiction between what he says and what he does you begin to question, “What is he trying to hide? What will those documents reveal? The point is not necessarily where he was born, but why he refuses to release the documents.

The media should be trying to ascertain the truth and request that President Obama release the documents instead of criticizing the people who are looking for the answers. The media should at least ask him why he is refusing to disclose the birth certificate and college papers. The freedom of the press is recognized in the first amendment of the Constitution because they are supposed to be the watchdogs over the government.

President Obama, you state you want to have the most transparent government ever, then I say release the documents.

Greg Zotta