At 7:03 this morning I learned that President Obama released a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate, hoping to put to rest his aptly termed “side show” critics.  The country is in turmoil; our leader has bigger issues at hand.

 My feelings, however, are mixed.  I voted for Obama and hold him in high esteem.  Sure he has his foibles (don’t we all!) but I have tremendous respect and admiration for the man.  Given the vetting one goes through when they run for high office, I can’t imagine a stone was left unturned by his opponents hoping to discredit him in some way.

 Yet here we are producing documentation to the conspiracy-theorists who’ve dredged up the false notion that Obama was born overseas.  Will the “birthers” finally give it a rest?

 To my dismay, the next sound bite came from Donald Trump saying, “As for the actual document, we have to look at it, we have to see ... is it real? Is it proper? What's on it? But I hope it checks out beautifully."

 How dare he, I thought and realized how angry I’ve become at the absurd political discourse.  Donald Trump, presidential hopeful, accusing our President, (his President!!!) of producing false documents in order to “prove” he’s a US citizen.  It boggles the mind and it erodes the soul and the discouragement I feel is palpable.

 Gone are the days when we debate the issues and instead we attack the man.  For in those very words “is it real? Is it proper?” we are degrading the very reasons that I became a US citizen:  so that I could vote and have a say in the future of our democracy.

 Shame on you Donald Trump.