It is nearly summertime, and the sound of children happily swimming and playing at public pools will again be heard. To watch over these little ones, lifeguards and swim instructors are being hired across the country. My 16-year-old son will soon be one of these new lifeguards. After his years on the local swim team and obtaining an education in lifesaving and teaching techniques, he is ready to begin.
New lifeguards are required to provide proof that they have the needed education and training. At hiring, the county required identification and a proper Social Security number. A copy of his birth certificate was provided, but that was not adequate despite having the physician who had attended at his birth vouch that he had seen the original birth certificate. I am his father and the pediatrician who attended at his birth, but that was not satisfactory. Quite easily we obtained an original certificate, which was accepted.
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As a physician, I understand the need for careful attention to validating credentials. Several times a year, I am asked by some hospital or insurance company to once again provide access to my educational records to validate my training and background. Without a doubt, I would not be allowed to practice medicine without this process. I have never been in court for this because I have always dutifully provided all of the information asked of me.
For this reason I am a bit surprised that Barack Obama, serving as president of the United States, has been allowed to have a Hawaiian physician simply vouch that he has seen the birth certificate and has not had to provide the original. I am surprised that my educational records have been provided to the public and reviewed literally more than 100 times to prove I am who I say I am. Barack Obama has not been required to provide his school records at any level to the public, as I have. Not only has he not been required to do so, but he is actively and legally fighting to prevent his school records from being made available.
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It is difficult to accept that Barack Obama, who now sits where Abraham Lincoln and George Washington once sat, is hiding his past in ways we find hard to imagine either honest Abe or George of cherry-tree fame doing. Legends grew up about the honesty of the lives of these two former presidents. Instead of legends of honesty, we have fact and fiction currently swirling and combining in a confusing brew of questions as to where Barack Obama was born, at which hospital he was delivered and from which state his Social Security number was issued.
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Truly a different type of legend is forming. Because the truth is being hidden by the legal maneuvers of the Obama attorneys, even more speculative questions arise. Did Barack Obama receive tuition assistance in Indonesia while claiming to be Muslim? Or in the United States while claiming to be foreign? Someday these questions may need to be answered at the level of the Supreme Court of the land. Another question to be asked: Will Barack Obama's two appointees to the Supreme Court recuse themselves if the legal case about the details of his birth comes before them?
James Grinols, M.D., is a pediatrician who resides in Woodbury, Minn., with his wife and three sons.
