A Conversation

My boss just copied me on an email he sent out. The email reads “Obituary, Born 1776, died 2008” and shows a picture of the United States embossed with RIP and President Obama dressed as the Grim Reaper. The email goes on to blame President Obama for all of America’s current woes and includes the following “facts”:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million
McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

It also states the following:

"In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

I should state that my boss is a White man and although I have always been aware of his conservative politics we’ve enjoyed an amicable relationship. Still, I’m confused as to why he would include me in this email and I’m pissed off because now I have to have a “conversation” with him. Perhaps it was a mistake and I shouldn’t have been included at all and when I speak with him he may be totally surprised that I received the email. But what if he sent it on purpose? As I stated before I’ve always been aware of his point of view as he has been quite vocal of his displeasure with President Obama, illegal immigrants and any Liberal minded views. In fact we did have a conversation during the election of 2008 where he made it very clear how he felt about Democrats in general and I was sure I made my views clear as well. But afterwards I chose to ignore him and now I’ve begun to question myself…have I gone soft?

By not wanting to rock the boat have I in some way given this man the idea that I agree with him or he can say or do anything he wants around me? What if somehow in all my years of working in Corporate America I have become complacent let down my guard and allowed others to view me as insignificant or not see me at all? I’m not saying I should go all Huey Newton on the man but if in my efforts to maintain a cordial working environment I have in anyway contributed to this perhaps I need to be more vocal. Like I said earlier, my boss and I enjoy a great relationship in fact this is my second time working for him. But what if he’s some closet racist who sends out those bigoted cartoons and depictions of President Obama as Hitler and the devil? What if this man is not only conservative but also secretly a White Supremacist? How well do I really know him, I mean these emails may have been going on for some time before I was included, right? The end of the email instructs you to “pass this along to help everyone realize how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.” Who exactly is everyone and what is at stake? Sounds like Tea Party speech to me. Have I somehow become privy to what goes on inside this movement?

Whatever, the fact is like I said earlier, I need to have a “conversation” with the man.