Pitts raised critical issues – the fact that some continue to falsely insist that Barack Obama is a Muslim, when in fact he is a Christian, and the fact that it shouldn’t be a problem if Obama actually were a Muslim.

Our founding fathers sought religious freedom in the United States, and freedom of religion has been one of the major strengths of our country since the very beginning. Our First Amendment rights are among the reasons people have sought refuge in this country from tyrannical governments across the globe.

Years ago I studied comparative religion at Lewis and Clark College, which had a tremendous overseas study program and a large foreign exchange student population. To expand my horizons, I requested roommates from another country. I was assigned roommates from Saudi Arabia, who were Muslim. They were two of the loveliest, kindest and most intelligent individuals I have ever met.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity are the three major religions of the Western world, and they share many core values and principles. It is a mistake to assume that fundamentalists from any of the three religions represent the rest of their respective faiths. It is a terrible shame that since 9/11, fear has caused many to ignore this distinction regarding the Muslim faith.

Media mavens have decided that this is shocking enough to be newsworthy. Pitts tells us this photograph demonstrates an alarming ignorance of history on the part of our Marines. In this case we are fortunate to be able to see the photograph in question.

It is self-consciously posed in the style and spirit of Teddy Roosevelt. It appears dignified and even staid in comparison to most of the pictures that surround us. The SS symbol in the middle of it creates the same embarrassment we feel when we see ourselves in our fifth-grade class photo putting our fingers behind each others’ heads.

Faintly embarrassing? Yes. Kinda funny? Yeah. Good gossip fodder, but newsworthy it is not.

In every decade at least as far back as Aristotle, the older folks have comforted themselves by bewailing the ignorance of the young. Not recognizing the SS logo might lose you a round in a trivia quiz, because it is trivia. It doesn’t mean you can’t tell the difference between totalitarianism and democracy.

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