Thursday, September 25, 2014
"Latte Salute" Mediated Communication #1
I originally saw the "latte salute" on Facebook. There are crazy outlandish remarks on how disrespectful "Obamie" was/is because he saluted two Marines while holding a cup of coffee in the same hand. Originally I too would have been upset at his carelessness, but (enter critical thinking) come to find out Presidents aren't required to salute in the first place. It all started with Ronald Reagan, and every President since has carried on his tradition. Although it has much of America up in arms over the salute, it is very fallacious of them to assume he has done something wrong. Was it disrespectful of him to salute with a cup of coffee in his hand? Yes. Did he actually do something wrong? No (outside of offending people, is that even wrong?). There is a great little read on New York Post. I particularly like the quotes they hi-lite, it exposes the mind set of America. Some people trash talk Obama while other acknowledge that he is not required to salute, but if he chooses to do so, please do so with respect. I would have to agree with the later. If you choose to salute the military please do so with respect. They offer everything (themselves) to protect our freedoms, they deserve at the very least our respect and much much more. To keep things fair there is a nice shot of President Bush saluting with his dog in his hands.
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I was interested to learn that they are not required to salute the marines. I did not know that. It does change the way we should look at this. I do, however; agree that if he chooses to salute he should have switched his latte to the other hand and taken the time to salute them correctly. It is interesting to see the picture of President Bush saluting with his dog. Once again, not required, but should be done respectfully.
ReplyDeleteI salute you and your critical thinking. Sans latte.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing when I first saw the video of Obama saluting the marines and thought "O typical Obama doing something stupid." However after I read the article we come to see it is not required for presidents to salute. Although it was a tradition that President Reagan started, it still is disrespectful in the manner which he did it. I find it interesting how quickly our thoughts can change after the truth is revealed.
ReplyDeletecan you imagine what it much be like to have your every move scrunitzied and they exploited into something that it's clearly not. He was getting off a plane, mind probably on his next crisis and reached up in acknowledgement that someone was saluting him. Would it have been better for him to not even look at the military personnel lining his exit? The fallacious is clear.
ReplyDeleteUgh. As much as it pains me I must concur. He was obviously just exiting the plane, and he is the Commander in Chief, and isn't even required to salute back. The Marines were holding their salute, and even after he semi-saluted, they didn't release their position. Usually, after an officer salutes back, the enlisted personnel release their salute. Since we can see this didn't happen, they were going to stand there at attention as a sign of respect for the President. The Marine’s that this situation affected were not offended, so neither should we.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that even though the POTUS is Commander-in-Chief in that he has all the powers afforded him by international law as "supreme commander" over his own military, he is still considered constitutionally as a civilian. He would have to be in order for the office to not be considered a dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteIn watching the news and various news outlets about this topic I don't necessarily think he was trying to salute but to acknowledge. If it is not a law that he needs to salute really who's to say if it was fully a salute or not? I think he acknowledged the soldier and that was good of him to acknowledge him. I don't properly waive hello to a lot of people sometimes its just a head nod. I feel that we look too much at the negative in things. We need to try and look for the positive and hold people accountable to what they tell us they will do and whether or not they do it.
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