I recently befriended an interesting octogenarian, I think 87, spry, a collector of coins, stamps and other stuff. His name is Harry. He considers me a good friend. I’ve had him to my home, helped him out with eBay, taken him for rides, stopping on whims to meet people in the hills of Conway and Ashfield while poking around old roads, probing cellar holes. He’s fun to be with, great company, lots to offer, loves local history, conversation.

I’ve known Harry maybe a year and avoid political discussion like the swine flu. The hints have been there from the start that we are not political soul mates. Far from it. So why go there?

The other night I called him to check if an order I placed on eBay had arrived in a timely fashion. It had. Then he delivered a dire warning to a trusted friend: our country is in very serious trouble, Obama must go. Our president is the agent for a communist takeover, has been planted from afar, serious stuff, could be the end of America as we know it; never again land of the free, home of the brave. Obama’s here to orchestrate a coup, dismantle free enterprise.

Just the other day Harry received a letter in the mail. There’s a movement afoot to impeach Obama. We must unite and get it done. Listen to Glenn Beck. He’s on every night at 5, the most watched man in the world; trusted, too. He knows what’s going on and is brave enough to expose it. Every night on TV. Tune in. Very serious. It’ll happen before we know what hit us. Then it’ll be too late.

Harry didn’t hesitate to to issue the warning; said because it’s on TV, it has to be true. You can’t just tell lies on television. It’s illegal. Beck knows what he’s talking about. He’s trying to save us.

Don’t get me wrong. Harry is a good man, a sweet yellow peach, salt of the earth. He means well, loves his country, has a big picture of the Virgin Mary in his apartment, and has been twisted by the right-wing propaganda machine. The stuff they’re saying should be illegal. That’s for sure. It isn’t. It’s pure manipulation based on lies. Very sad what America has become, what Reagan and the Bushes allowed Rupert Murdoch to do in the name of freedom of speech and the press, both inalienable rights, to build a corporate-media behemoth of misinformation.

I fear where it’s leading. I really do. Take a look at these gun-toting crackpots in the street, listen to the Tucson, Ariz., preacher praying for Obama’s death by the same brain cancer that took Teddy Kennedy, building a frothy flock along the way. They too want our president dead and aren’t afraid to say so publicly; would like him arrested and executed for murder of the unborn; call for it on mainstream radio talk.

It’s frightening. It’s serious. It must be stopped.