Smart people saying stupid things

I watched the news last night and saw the edited version of the president's press conference yesterday hoping to get a better understanding of his half hearted attempt to fix the obscene health care system in this country. I was then confused by the question and his response to a question about the arrest of a Harvard professor. Liking to be informed I started checking out the story for myself. The more I read the more irritated I became. Here is the store from what I read:

A professor at Harvard returned to his house and realized he had forgotten his keys. He then broke into his house, as I have had to do several times. A neighbor, viewing this from a distance, thought that someone was trying to burglarize his house and called the police. So far this is nothing extraordinary and most of us would be happy that our neighbor would be paying attention, respond and that the police would arrive in a timely fashion.

So, the police arrive and confront the man. He says he lives here, but refuses to produce any identification. The police rightly insist that he show them some ID. This obviously intelligent professor then becomes enraged and irrational, accusing the officers of racism and making rather un-intellectual comments about the responding Sgt.'s mother. The police arrest the unidentified man for suspected burglary.

Ok, first things first, it the police stop you and ask you to produce ID, you have to produce it with a very few exceptions. Being at the seen of a burglary call is not one of them. This is not something in my opinion that anyone with a little bit of common sense should have done. You are at your house and asked to prove you live there, but instead of doing this and thanking the police for protecting his property he makes a complete ass of himself. Not something that and intelligent person does.

Now for the president's mistake. When you are the president of the united states or any public official and first words out of your mouth in response to a question are, I don't really know what happened, you should finish with: therefore I have no response at this time. Unfortunately, Obama opens his mouth and calls the police officers actions "stupid". Both of their responses illustrate a major pitfall of being an intellectual. The arrogance to believe that you are smart enough to speak without think about or know anything about what you're saying.

I do however agree with the people screaming for an apology. I think both the professor and President Obama owe the officers at the scene an apology, one made as publicly as the comments they made about the policemen. God gave us two eyes and two ears, we should look and listen twice as much as we speak and then only if we can do so without making an ass of ourselves.

Here endith the lesson.