It scares me that I might be walking down the street with the people who have created such a furor over President Obama’s speech. Evidently, they had seen the speech before it was released to the public, and certainly before it was actually delivered in person.

The only thing I can figure out is that these people are so incensed that we have elected a smart, articulate man to lead our country that they will grasp at any issue to criticize him.

It is bad enough that they have gone crazy over the health care reform issue, even though I would venture to say that very few of us actually understand it. I have tried to read about that topic, and though I am a bit more aware than I was two months ago, I still hear people refer to it is Socialism, no, wait … Nazism. I may be crazy, but I doubt that most of those critics have a clue about what that means. And referring to an address aimed at elementary school children as being “Nazi-like” borders on idiocy.

I guess that the solution is for those of us who haven’t fallen overboard need to be more vocal, rather than letting the Not-Silent Minority drown out logical, reasonable folks.

Bellevue is a great city to live and work in. The same can be said for our state, and of course for our country. I continue to believe that we have a pretty intelligent, thoughtful populace. But these people embarrass me – on many levels.

I have quite a few friends who didn’t vote for Barack Obama. They are kind, intelligent, caring people who just couldn’t see themselves voting either for a Democrat, or for a “Liberal.” But I would like to think that even they are embarrassed by the association of their voting choices with the fringe element who don’t believe that the leader of our country should be encouraging our young people to strive to be great; to take some responsibility for their future. I hope they will stand up for what they think is right, also.

Ted Cox, Bellevue