Robin SmithIf you were raised as a child before the 24-hour availability of television, online programming, iPads, or any other digital medium that served to occupy your mind instead of active play, you'll understand the term "play pretend."
Growing up, our neighborhood crew would "pretend to be at the bank" using Monopoly money and red and black checkers as coins to conduct our transactions.
We created a world of our own making and liking, using items in the then-and-there to construct a small window of time in play that fit our imaginations.
We'd also fuss if something didn't work out just as we had imagined. We'd say "do it over" if one of the playmates missed their cue.
So it seems Barack Obama is play pretending to be president in a dangerous time. We've seen on more occasions than can be counted where the truth is rewritten and facts are absolutely and deliberately ignored to frame the world-according-to-Obama's-administration -- from the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal to the Benghazi tragedy and on and on.
An ongoing authentic issue that our nation, along with the world, faces is Islamic radicalism.
Any faith can be perverted.
Christianity was and is perverted by the Ku Klux Klan in quoting Scripture and burning crosses as part of its despicable racism and hate. On the current KKK website, it deceivingly declares, "Bringing a message of hope and deliverance to white Christian America! A message of love not hate!" The national director of the "Knights" is also recognized as "pastor."
The Westboro "Baptist Church" known for its protests at military funerals and a website domain, "godhatesfags.com," is another hate group which approaches Scripture with the Biblical buffet approach to justify its anger and acts.
Criticisms of these dangerous groups have been public; membership is not applauded or defended.
As we reflect on the horrific Paris terror attacks, as with others conducted by Islamic radicals, the only individuals or groups who seem unwilling to address the problem as it truly exists are our president and those under his direction.
The Fort Hood shooting was laughingly referenced as "workplace violence" by the Obama administration as Major Nidal Hasan, who self-identified as a "Soldier of Allah," gunned down American soldiers on our own soil.
The president and his administration completely dismissed the world meeting of support in Paris with global leaders standing together against terrorism.
Last week, National Public Radio's Mara Liasson confronted President Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, after he noted the White House chose "not to associate" with French President Francois Hollande's assertion that France was at war with radical Islam.
Last week, Obama released five more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, terrorists who have been al-Qaida fighters.
I suppose in his play-pretend world, if you don't like it, you don't have to acknowledge it exists. If you don't acknowledge it exists, then it really doesn't.
Plato's observation seems to fit the willful ignorance of Barack Obama: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
Robin Smith, immediate past Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, is owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.