Mea culpa regarding racial profiling

Last week’s column contained two glaring mistakes and I regret both. The thing that I most regret is that I profiled a demonstrator.

First, I want to thank everyone who pointed out my error. Online comments and those I received by e-mail didn’t mince words in letting me know the AR-15 rifleman I referred to was African American.

I won’t hesitate to write about issues or situations that I think are wrong and I expect no less of readers of my opinions. Allow me to explain how I made the first error and in the process, mistakenly profiled an entire group.

When checking MSNBC.com online Aug. 18, there was a story about gunmen showing up at a speech by President Barack Obama. This was the second occurrence in less than a week where the Secret Service allowed gunmen near the venue of an Obama appearance.

The story was accompanied by a picture – a distant shot of a man in a white shirt with a rifle strapped to his back. The gunman’s face wasn’t shown so I figured he was white, like the pistol-wearing protester who appeared at an Obama town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 12.

As usual, after review, I send columns to The News Virginian on Tuesday nights. While watching the evening news Wednesday, I saw actual footage of the rifle-carrying protester and realized he was black. By then, my column had gone to press and couldn’t be corrected. I awaited the fallout.

It came and I then realized my second mistake. Having criticized racial profiling in an Aug. 6 column, I wrote that the gunman was white. I did exactly what I said police and everyone shouldn’t do.

When I assumed (yes, that old saying which I can’t repeat, is right) that the rifleman at Obama’s speech in Phoenix had to be white, I failed to heed my own beliefs. As I said before, racial profiling is wrong.

Now onto other things:

Apparently, the president can’t please the Republican PON – Party of No – in anything he does.

The PON didn’t like it when Obama tried to restore America’s world standing after it sunk to new lows during President George W. Bush’s administration. The PON opposed Obama’s plans to revive the economy, close the Guantanamo Bay prison, withdraw troops from Iraq, loan taxpayer money to General Motors and Chrysler, nominate of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court and cover all Americans with a national health care program.

Now the PON is complaining about him going on vacation, saying he needs to remain in Washington to work on finalizing health care. Both houses of Congress are in late summer recess. But with the reception congressional Democrats are getting from their constituents, many of them wish they had stayed in the capital.

Obama is still trying to work with the opposition. At some point he’ll have to listen to his liberal supporters and those who voted for him and make the necessary changes.

It would be understandable if the PON had been successful during the past eight years or if they had any credible ideas now. They weren’t and they don’t.

Nelson Graves, of Augusta County, is a columnist for The News Virginian. E-mail him at