What's a "Birther"?

It turns out a "birther" is someone who doesn't believe Barack Obama is the true president of the United States because they believe he is not a natural born citizen.  They question the authenticity of the short form of the Hawaiian birth certificate he produced during his presidential campaign.  

This is what I learned while researching the story my boss told me about yesterday.  The story is that Army reservist Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook filed a lawsuit against President Obama, arguing that Obama has no authority to deploy him to Iraq because he is not our president, and therefore it would be illegal for Cook to follow his orders.  It's an interesting argument implying that anyone in the armed services following such orders could potentially be tried as war criminals.  

Things look particularly bad for Obama's case because the Army responded by revoking Cook's deployment.  When I initially heard about this, I considered forwarding it to friends and family in the armed services and suggesting they consider following suit to see if we could force the issue to be settled once and for all.  Even if they couldn't afford to file their own suit, they might be able to contact Cook's lawyer, Orly Taitz, and see if he'd be interested in taking on similar cases or a class action suit pro bono.  

But the story is rarely ever black and white, and this one seems to be no exception to the rule.  I chose the link that I did because it felt fairly unbiased and linked to a number of other reports on the subject.  There is some question about Mr. Cook's backstory.  Was he called to duty through a (relatively) natural course of events or did he volunteer for duty just so that he could file a lawsuit?  Was this a defensive or an offensive move?  Is he a concerned average joe or a "right wing-nut"?  

If he is indeed a concerned average Joe, why let this be such a big deal?  Why not just dig up a long-form birth certificate, settle the matter, and move on?  

If he is a wing-nut, why give him the satisfaction of a legitimate response.  He's obviously going to be an ongoing problem and stir up trouble when and where you don't need it regardless of the answer.  

I do want a response from my president.  I'm an American and I believe we are innocent until proven guilty, so I will call Obama "President" out of respect.  I simply would like that respect reciprocated with an honest and sincere response to the question of his birthplace.  His lack of attention to legitimate inquiry in this matter implicates him as being fraudulent.  However, while I am glad to hear that there are people who are not willing to let things slide that shouldn't, I'm also not so sure I want Maj. Cook to be my front man either.  The words "unlawful entrapment" come to mind and that's not something that I want anyone that I care about associated with.

So perhaps not a call to action in this post, but a call to be vigilant.  A call to keep questioning.  

I do hope and pray that President Obama will do right by this country.  I want him to succeed.  I hope he does the right thing.