Courtesy of USA Today:
"The best way to protect Americans from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source," Obama said in an East Room ceremony honoring doctors and nurses who have been or are going to West Africa.
"If we are not dealing with this problem there, it will come here," Obama said.
The president lauded his guests for their "sense of duty," and of "serving a cause greater than themselves." He called them "shock troops" who should be applauded.
"And when they come home," Obama said. "they deserve to be treated properly. They deserve to be treated like the heroes that they are."
Obama and aides have criticized New Jersey, New York and Illinois over quarantine policies for returning workers.
These doctors and nurses can help explain the challenge of Ebola to Americans, and how to beat it. "We respond with common sense and skill and courage," he said, and not "fear," "hysteria" or "misinformation."
Obama seemed to nearly choke up as he discussed his frustration with state officials who have called for quarantines of health care workers from Africa.
"I put those on notice who think that we should hide from these problems," Obama said. "That's not who we are, that's not who I am, that's not who these folks are. This is America, and we do things differently."
I listened to this speech live earlier today during the Alex Wagner show, and I was incredibly proud of my President for standing up to the Right Wing over this issue.
I especially loved this part:
"The reason I am so proud of this country is because when there are times when we need to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing. That's who we are. That's what we do. No other nation is doing as much to help in West Africa as the United States of America. When I hear people talking about American leadership...and then are promoting policies that would avoid leadership...and have us running in the opposite direction...and hiding under the covers, it makes me a little frustrated."
That must be the very definition of an understatement.
His cool, calm, and intellectual response to this issue stands in stark contrast to the fear mongering, the sky is falling, hysterics of those on the Right.
I love our prez and sadly he will go down in history as the most underrated president in U.S. history.
ReplyDeleteSidebar, I would live to kick Chris Christie directly in his ever shrinking nutsac. Such a piggie.
Can I join you? The guy's nothing but a bully in an "oscar de la tenta" suit.
DeleteSarah says the nurse in Maine needs to be deported back to Ebola.
ReplyDeleteIs that right next to the country of Africa?
DeleteAnd how far is that from our allies in North Korea?
Is that what Paul Revere was warning the British about?
DeleteWould that be at 1400 Pennsylvania ave.?
DeleteThis is what this ancient, german-born, naturalized US Citizen has always hoped this Nation can be. Yet, this is an ideal which cannot be fulfilled in the present, but one towards which we have to labor tirelessly, so our offspring may live in a less polarized society.
ReplyDeleteThis President deserves much more respect from all Americans. He's always put our best interest first. Of course this will get spun by the brains behind rwnj news sources. I spoke with my niece who just became a doctor at Belleview, and she explained it just as he did. One Case doesn't make a pandemic, as we learn more, we'll do better.
ReplyDeleteWhat kills more people per year? Ebola or the Flu?
The current Ebola crisis began in December of 2013, and during all the time since then doctors and other health care workers have been coming and going to America without notice until this October when Mr. Duncan was diagnosed.
ReplyDeleteDuring all that time, only TWO people have contracted the disease since crossing our borders; only ONE person has infected other people - and that was when he was severely ill.
If you could catch Ebola from an asymptomatic health care worker on public transportation or shopping at the store, there have been plenty of opportunities to do so since December of 2014 - and it HASN'T HAPPENED.
The hysteria and panic has to stop, and along with it the hatred, xenophobia and blind adherence to bullying authority.
@ 5:43
DeleteIt won't, however. As long as people are stupid enough to allow their ignorance to trap them into more ignorance and even stupidity, there will be fears and near panics like this.
The same type of tactics were used when AIDS first showed up and an assortment of other "major problems" which we have experienced. As Anita above stated, "What kills more people per year? Ebola or the Flu?"
5:43, December 2014? Really? Are you a fortune teller?
Delete5:43 wrote December 2013. Are you a reader?
DeleteAnother reason to IMPEACH
ReplyDeletethe Mulatto Mesiah
Your brain is sicker than all the Ebola victims put together.
DeleteFor what you, you racist pig?
DeleteIt must really gross you out that your heroine, Mrs. Palin, is married to an Eskimo. Wonder why she didn't choose a nice, white, racist like you? Do you like to think about Palin boning an Alaska Native and making her half-breed kids? That must really tear you up, but somehow it's okay for her to bone an Eskimo and breed with him but you take offense at our partially black President? Wonder if Todd the Eskimo taught Sarah to beg for more in his native Yupik language?
DeleteGood thing Glen Rice didn't knock her up. Or did she have a "white-out"?
Delete(I am ashamed 6:08 made me go there.)
Hey, stupid, I'll bet you call yourself a christian, yet you can't even spell "messiah" correctly.
DeleteMore proof that you are stupid. As if we needed more.
Are you still alive, living in your own stench? What is Todd Palin and his half breed kids, if they are his biological kids?
DeleteAnonymous5:13 PM
ReplyDeleteSarah says the nurse in Maine needs to be deported back to Ebola.
@@@@@@@@
Sarah Palin needs to be deported back to Idaho along with all those Heaths.
That was awesome. I love how President Obama turned the ideas of leadership and American exceptionalism right back into the faces of the simpering, whimpering cowards who endlessly spout those words, but have no idea what they really mean. That means that tomorrow, all those folks will be even more nasty-the way an immature teenager gets even more petty and pathetic when called out for their immature behavior. Just watch. And the president will deal with it with grace and maturity. We are so lucky to have him.
ReplyDeletecheck yr, tenth amendment.
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of our President. Hurrah for his intelligence and wisdom. He is so right about those doctors and nurses being heroes. Thank you Mr. Obama, and thank Gryphen, for giving us a place to share pride and happiness, and not just scorn for the stupidity of certain tawdry braying brawlers.
ReplyDelete"That's why politics must be excised from the Ebola issue, and the medical and scientific community must be listened to by the Obama Administration." I cut & pasted that directly from Sarah Palin's FaceBook screed. Am I nuts, or is this EXACTLY what President Obama has been doing? Then she goes on to say that these politicians who are "setting the rules", in DEFIANCE of the medical an scientific community, are "filling this Obama leadership void".
ReplyDeleteSo, if I read this right, Obama should be listening to the experts and not the politicians. But because Obama IS listening to the experts and the politicians AREN'T, then the politicians MUST be right and Obama must be WRONG!
Do you think the Wrong...er, the Right pundits noticed our President delivered that speech WITHOUT A TELEPROMPTER?
ReplyDelete(p.s., Gryphen, your blog is the only one I've been following via Holland America's access to the internet since Sept 29 when my sis and I embarked on a cruise to the South Seas, Australia and New Zealand)
Wow, I'm honored KaJo.
DeleteI am so proud of our President! The right wing cannot take that away from me!
DeleteWhat reasonable people heard:
ReplyDelete"The reason I am so proud of this country is because when there are times when we need to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing. That's who we are. That's what we do.
What right wingers heard:
"He hates America. He wants to bring it to it's knees. He wants us all to get ebola. He wants to play golf. He's stupid."