Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a “birther” and I’m still undecided as to whether Barack Obama was born in the country or not.  On the one hand, he promptly provided a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii during his campaign.  That’s it for that side of the story. Problem solved for half the country and they’re happy.  But there are some discrepancies in the story that lend themselves to the “birthers” claims of a false birth record:

• First on the list is the birth certificate itself.  Copies floating around the internet are in different contrast ratios and different resolutions, leading the probability for one or many of the supposed “official” birth certificates to be forgeries.  In and of itself, the certificate contains a patterned background and simple Arial font face and virtually no aspects to deter would-be forgers.  This begs me to ask how easy it would have been to forge the original birth certificate.  A twelve year old with Photoshop could have created the “original” very easily.  I know I could.
• Second, a copy I found of the “original” birth certificate (pictured to the right) has the certificate number stamped out so no one can verify that it actually is a valid birth certificate in the state of Hawaii or even if it matches the “### YYYY – ######” format of Hawaii’s certificate numbers.
• Third, there is a ghost of date stamp on the back of document dated “Jun – 6 – 2007″.  Barack didn’t go back to Hawaii to grab this document until the primary last year (2008) so why is it dated nearly a year before that?
• Fourth, here is an actual official birth certificate from the state of Hawai’i.  Notice what this one contains that the supposed “official” certification does not…both a signature stamp and a notarized stamp from the state of Hawaii. Only with these is a Hawaii birth certificate considered official…so why does this document not have any?
• Fifth, there is a supposed 1961 original birth certificate in Hawaii, which Barack Obama has supposedly obstructed access to.  With him as President, this document is undoubtedly a piece of American history and should be fully and readily accessible to the American people.  This leads me to ask, if this document exists, why was it not revealed during his campaign instead of the this supposed ONLY method of getting his birth certificate.
• Last, if there wasn’t some truth to the story…it wouldn’t be alive.  With 10% of Americans believing the moon landing was faked and a poll coming out in a half an hour that shows half of Virginia thinking Obama wasn’t born here, there has to be some truth to the story whether it’s Obama’s silence of the entire issue or his shady past and connections in Kenya.

Now, people may want to call this hysteria or blatant racism because we elected a black President.  But what makes this nation so great is that the citizenry has the ability to ask these questions regarding things they deem important and for whatever reason they personally see fit.  Although I don’t fully agree with the “birthers,” I see their plight and the cause they fight for…to hold true to our constitution and the words contained within it.

After all, if Hilary had been elected President, God knows I would be right there with them defending the fact that the Constitution says that only a man can be President.  Think I’m crazy? Neither the judiciary or the legislative articles of the Constitution use gender-specific pronouns, but the Article II uses the word “he” throughout. Argue with that.

This is not a matter of perspective and opinion…it’s a matter of how we should adhere to Constitution and set up systems to verify it’s followed to its specific purpose.