AfriWare – 266 Lake, South Austin Coalition – 5660 W. Madison

Sophia Woldemariam

“They should have more security. If they can get into the White House that means they can do anything anywhere else. So we have to be more conscientious and security-minded everywhere – not only just the White House.”

Beverly Bellamy

“I think they should be prosecuted, and I think it was criminal. It is not entertaining or funny for them to crash a state dinner at the White House. And this behavior would not have been tolerated with any other president. Since Mr. Obama has been in the White House the level of disrespect that he has had to endure has been unprecedented; with the senator yelling he is a liar – these things would not have occurred with George Bush or any other president. It would not be happening now if Barack Obama wasn’t black. They could have had Anthrax coming into the White House; just because they passed through a metal detector didn’t mean they were not armed with any other weapons.”

Natasha Nelson

“The security should have been doing their jobs; they could have had bombs or anything that could have hurt Mr. Obama and his wife. And look at all the cabinet people who were present, and the vice president, Mr. Biden, was at risk too. Half of the government officials could have been wiped out if they had been terrorists. This is scary and needs to be investigated immediately.

Raymond Blount

“I don’t think I would have been able to get in like that because of my color. They should blame security because of the way they got in – and they could have been anybody; somebody with a gun, or could have made a weapon out of something there. It really didn’t mater what race they were. I still think they should be punished, just to set the example that this is our president and we don’t want it to wind up being like John Kennedy. I feel President Obama should have better security; somebody is cutting corners or something. Right now, they have got to tighten up the security.”

Frank Cannon

“Well, I think it is a big deficit in the security, but I also think you have to also look back historically at presidents who have been killed, as recent as John Kennedy. In a situation like this, in 2009 when security is more of an issue and technology being what it is, I still think it is highly suspicious that a European couple came through the White House and was not on the list; and be that close to the president. I think this has a lot of symbolism. We should take a look and asked ourselves how did that happen and why did this happen? I have a lot of opinions but I’ll just say it is extremely important that we take a look. And let us not forget there was a head of state from India present that they were responsible for, and his security could have been compromised. How do we know if this wasn’t a test run for something in the future?”

Marlo Rice

“I think it was morally wrong. They didn’t do this when Bush was in. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of something like this happening. Someone needs to answer for this.”