I have been supporting Barack Obama both financially and more importantly by visiting my neighbors and getting them registered to vote in Fort Collins Colorado.  During that phase of the work I sadly met many who told me stories about why it didn’t matter if they voted.  Every time it was due to racism.  I learned of people whose kids can’t play with neighbor kids due to ancestry.  I learned of a child leaving home because they looked more like one parent than another, so choose to live with the one that didn’t make them stand out.  I learned of people who have simply given up because it feels useless.  Their needs have never been met.   Then the opponent started making suggestions that Obama was a Muslim.  I have to ask, what is wrong with being Muslim?  I have worked with many fellow humans who are Muslim, or come from Muslim ancestry.  You can be a Muslim and an American.  I know a man who is an American of Muslim ancestry who has fought side by side with fellow Americans in Iraq.  Did he do that to come home and hear ugly racial slurs about his family’s religion?  How is this different from spitting on a Veteran of the Vietnam War?  Consider Native Americans that fight for this country even though it consistently denies the treaties with their Sovereign Nations.  Think about how many Mexican American will fight for this country even though families are viciously broken by raids conducted by INS.  How many African Americans will continue to fight for this country even though just this year I read stories of segregation in schools in southern USA?  Why?  Because they BELONG HERE!   There is no reason to fear a fellow human being simply due to ancestry.  It is an irrational fear.  If they can get you to be afraid, then they know you will let them be in charge of your own best interests.  Be in charge of your own best interests.  Don’t be afraid, meet your neighbors.  Learn about them and you will see they don’t want to take anything away.  They only want to share in the experience of being an American in this great nation of immigrants.  Obama is the candidate that understands this, and is not pandering fear.  Participate in giving HOPE, vote for Barack Hussein Obama.   Laura Radcliff