The Illinoian

Whether we’re willing to admit it, the question on everyone’s
mind this election year is if there will be an assassination
attempt on Sen. Barack Obama. For many, it seems not to be
a question of if but when.

“It doesn’t matter even if Obama gets the nomination. (Sen.
Hillary) Clinton will be his vice president, and when he gets
assassinated, she’ll be president.”

My friend hit me with the above idea after I had been
commenting about how well Obama’s been doing recently. My
friend and I argue about who should be the next Democratic
nominee for president; while she is a stanch supporter of
Clinton, I support Obama.

Last year’s Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing recently stated
if Obama were elected, she thinks he would be assassinated.

“He would probably not last long, a black man in the position
of president. They would kill him,” the British novelist
said in an interview with the Stockholm newspaper Dagens
Nyheter.

Comparisons already have been made between Obama and
past assassination victims President John F. Kennedy, Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. According
to telegraph.co.uk, “Last month, when his motorcade sped
past Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was shot
dead in 1963, Mr. Obama said he was too busy focusing on
the speech he was about to give even to register what had
happened there.”

In response to fears he might have an attempt made on
him, Obama has said people should stop worrying, and that
neither King nor Robert Kennedy had secret
service with them.

Downplaying a threat is probably Obama’s
way to help keep support from voters who might
not vote for him, fearing his assassination and
the widespread turmoil that would follow.

Many say if Obama were assassinated,
the event could spark racial riots the likes of
which haven’t been seen since the Rodney
King trial. After Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
was assassinated, there were riots in more
than 60 cities.

This idea of assassinations is just odd for me.
The last attempt on a president or a presidential
candidate’s life (exempting that dud grenade
lobbed at President George W. Bush while he
was in Georgia) was John Hinckley’s attempted
assassination of President Ronald W. Reagan
in 1981. I’m around the average age of an
undergraduate VCU student, and that was
six years before I even was born. I was only 3 when the Los
Angeles riots happened.

The idea of an attempt on Obama’s life is still hard for me
to fathom. Looking at tragedies, such as those that occurred at
Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois
University, it seems we are a generation much more likely to
turn a gun against ourselves than any political figure. Maybe
I’m just trying to apply reason to an unreasonable action, but
if there is an attempt on Obama’s life, I hope we will view
it as a way to grieve together as a nation, rather than as a
way to divide us.