By Tyler Shields
Round Table reporter

A couple of weeks ago I got home from work around eleven, just like every day. I came inside, locked the door, and turned off the T.V, which my mom had fallen asleep to.

 Usually it is on her favorite channel, Fox News. I expected to see the news headline of one of the many problems the country is going through, like the economy, the war in Afghanistan, or maybe bashing on the health care reform.

 To my amazement, the headline read, “Obama bows to foreign leader?” So I sat down to listen to them rant and complain about how this was unnecessary and unpatriotic.

 I was appalled that one of the major news stations in this country was using air time to pick apart our president for showing a sign of respect: bowing, to the emperor of Japan, Arkihito. I even heard a conservative, Bill Bennett, say, “It’s ugly. I don’t want to see it.”

 In the past eight years I have not been happy with where the country has gone, but I have not given up on it. But, at that moment, for the first time ever, I was embarrassed that people in this country think it is inappropriate to use a simple gesture, of respect none the less, to a foreign leader.

 Conservatives lately seem to be picking apart things that Obama does to show that he is un-American and un-patriotic. But I ask you, what is patriotic about that? What is American about picking apart your president?

 This country’s foreign policy has slowly whittled away lately, and our president is trying to better the view that other countries have of us by showing respect, something long lost in this country. There is nothing wrong with that.