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Photo-op nation didn't need to see
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Mr. President, why did you do it? What where you trying to prove? And to whom? You know very well that the people who think you weren't even born in this country won't believe anything you say, no matter how true, so why even try to convince them by releasing a photo? A picture from the White House is no more authentic to them than your original birth certificate issued by the state of Hawaii. I don't like that latest official presidential photograph taken six months ago at Camp David -- on your birthday, no less. I don'tneed to see my president (or governor or senator or any other public official) holding a gun as some badge of honor or proof of manhood. I didn't like it when George H.W. Bush or Jimmy Carter or Lyndon Johnson did it. And I was repulsed in 1994 when both candidates for Texas governor felt they had to be seen on the opening day of dove season holding a gun. Gov. Ann Richards thought she was obligated to participate in the Texas political macho ritual to show everyone she could hold her own with the good ole boys by taking down a little bird in flight. As it turned out, there were no doves flying above the Terrell countryside that morning, and Richards didnât kill anything. She did look like a "real hunter" carrying a shotgun over her shoulder (on her 61st birthday), and she did take aim and fire at the clear sky a few times to give photographers something to shoot. A couple of hundred miles away in Hockley, near Houston, George W. Bush had better luck, so to speak. Bush got off several shots that morning, and he actually bagged a bird. As it turned out, the game Bush killed using a double-barreled 20-guage shotgun was a federally protected bird, a killdeer. Bush was good-natured about the mistake, accepted a citation from a game warden and paid a $130 fine. Presidents seem obliged to be seen with a gun or piece of artillery, no matter how familiar they may or may not be with them. Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt (Franklin) were all seen with guns. And conservationist Teddy Roosevelt took great pride in his big-game hunting with his big guns. Lately, however, the politician with a gun has been more for show than anything, a way to appeal to the gun lobby and those constituents who cherish firearms as a symbol of their loyalty to the Second Amendment. Some people found it inconceivable that Obama, whom we are more accustomed to seeing with a golf club or basketball, had ever held a gun in his hand, much less fired one. When the president noted in an interview with The New Republic magazine that he engages in skeet shooting at Camp David âall the time,â the doubters attacked. They wondered aloud why he had never mentioned it before or why no one had seen a photo of such a revealing Obama moment. It didn't take long for the photo "analysis" to decide that the president was a novice with guns, based on the way he was standing and how he held the shotgun. This president can't win with a certain crowd, no matter how he tries, which is why the White House should never have released that photo. I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone say that the president is not a real gunman or hunter because, even though he was shooting, he was not killing anything. You see, in skeet shooting, no real birds are ever harmed. The prey is clay pigeons. Bob Ray Sanders writes for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; bobray@star-telegram.com. 
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Today is Saturday, May 18, the 138th day of 2013. There are 227 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: A large variety of children's wagons and gigs have arrived in thecity and are being sold at war prices.
1888 -- 125 years ago: All Rock Island retail houses, with the exception of a clothingstore and a jewelry store, have agreed to early closing hours during the summer months.The store will be closed at 8 p.m.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Baseball enthusiasts in Rock Island are attempting to raise$20,000 to keep the Island City Park open, despite the fact that the city has no franchise inorganized baseball this year.
1938 -- 75 years ago: The organization of a third rural young people's unit will beundertaken tomorrow night at the Milan Presbyterian Church, with Mrs. Mildred K.Wellman, home advisor, and Robert Smith, county farm adviser in charge.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Deere & Co. will begin a "big switch" on its telephone systemMonday morning. The extension numbers of all 1,600 telephones on the firm's EastMoline and Moline exchanges will be changed Monday morning.
1988 -- 25 years ago: East Moline's June Jamboree VI -- Nostalgia Days, will seemlike a '60s revival with the appearance of stars like Bobby Vee, Freddie Cannon, PeterNoone, Turtles, The Grass Roots and Lou Christie. This year's festival has beenexpanded to five days, June 22-26, at the Northeast Park complex.
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