What Obama and my wife have in common

Dear Mr. President:

First, happy birthday. I do hope Aug. 4 is an enjoyable day for you and your family. Coincidentally, I also will be celebrating this week the birth of someone dear to me, my beloved wife, Gena, whose birthday is on Aug. 9.

Speaking of birthdays, I couldn't help but hear and read all over the news last week about the fresh attention to your constitutional eligibility and natural born citizen status. I can hardly believe that individuals are now offering bounty – one for $100,000 – for any personal witness or sufficient evidence to your American birth.

For nearly two years, this debate continues to grow despite all your administration's attempts to diffuse it. And those who are raising concerns aren't just those on the right, but moderate law-abiding citizens like a retired CIA officer who commissioned an investigator to look into the issue.

Still, your press secretary, Robert Gibbs, continues to glibly brush aside the issue by calling it "fictional nonsense." But, in so doing, he devalues the grievance passage of the First Amendment and insults those who are genuinely concerned and inquisitive by categorizing them all as political quacks. He needs to learn that you can't model tolerance for certain minorities while belittling and quarantining those who don't blindly follow your lead. FULL STORY