Editor:

Watching NBC evening news on Tuesday, Sept. 15,– about the third story aired pertained to the House taking issue with South Carolina’s Rep. Joe Wilson and his outburst during the president’s speech about health care.

The news clip included part of an interview with Jimmy Carter expressing his concern over the negative racial turn many citizens are voicing about Obama. The segment then showed a crowd of protesters, presumably filmed the previous Saturday in Washington D.C., carrying signs and shouting their displeasure aimed at the direction the administration is going. I did not hear or see anything in this scene from the protesters about race. It was about government spending, health care, socialism, unemployment and issues, not color.

All the while, the commentator was talking about how politics are becoming more racially divisive.

The next shot has the only item pertaining to race from any conservative, Congresswoman Candice Miller (R) Mich., making the point that race has nothing to do with Joe Wilson’s comment.

This letter is not in defense of Joe Wilson as he was clearly out of place. This letter is not about exacerbating any racial divide, pitting Democrats against Republicans, conservative vs. liberals or neighbor vs. neighbor. My letter is to condemn anyone who plays the ‘race card as a stopgap, smoke and mirrors or a diversion away from the fact that many citizens are angry and upset with the policies and direction the administration is attempting to implement regardless of what the citizens want.

It is not the conservatives, not the Republicans and not Joe the plumber that is playing the race card, it is the people who have little substance and need to divert the attention of the average American away from proposed policies and laws buried so deep in bills that the very people who vote on them don’t understand nor do many bother to read the entire proposal.

We will pay for this, our children will pay for this and our children’s grandchildren will not be able to get us out of debt if we allow our attention to be drawn to non-issues like the race card. The race card is an emotional term and being maliciously used to take our attention away from the meaningful issues and direction the government is taking our country.

The best thing we can do is keep our focus on what is really going on, stay the course and make sure our representatives vote in our, not their, best interest. We still have the power to change who represents us and if they don’t, vote in someone who will.

Fairhope