A higher standard

My husband and I had an interesting conversation tonight. I was telling him about the comic strip that outraged many people. In this comic strip, President Obama was compared to a monkey. I was so shocked that in 2009 someone would still say something like that. I am not naive, I know there are still racists out there, but to put it in a newspaper? Outrageous.
My belief is that if you are someone that is in the public eye, be it an actress,an athlete,or just a newspaper writer/reporter, you should be held at an higher standard. I do not care about what you say in your own home, however, when you say on national tv(or even local tv for that matter) that the president is a monkey or whatever, you should be punished. I understand that this is America, the land of freedom of speech, but do you have to be a racist or slander someone? It really irks me that there are people out there that just do not care who is listening to them. If you are in the public eye, watch what you say, kids are listening. I don't want my son's hero to one day say something racist and then my son start thinking it's ok. We don't talk that way in my house, I won't allow it. We already hold our athletes at a higher standard. If one Football player calls his ex a whore in an interview, he gets fined or maybe get some endorsements taken away. If one Michael Phelps is caught smoking weed(at a party where he should have privacy for Pete's sake) he gets many endorsements taken away and scrutinized for "making a mistake". I know smoking weed is against the law, I am not saying what he did was right. It's just that his "experiment" was seen as worse than this comic about our president! That is outrageous to me. I don't care if you are a Dixie Chick and say that you do not like the president, who cares? That's your opinion, you shouldn't be getting death threats for that. But if they would have called President Bush a "cracker" (using this b/c of the Obama thing) they should have been fined or whatever. There should be a law for these people. EVEN regular ole people like me. If my local news interviews me about the recent ice storm, and I say something racist, I should be punished. How many children do you think in my community would have heard that? Maybe not many young children, but kids that have to keep a "current events journal" would have!
I am not saying that you should bow down to our presidents, or think that they walk on water. Sure, they make mistakes, they are only human. However, writing a comic in which you refer to him as a monkey? That is so wrong! I just wish people(all people)would think before they speak! It's ok to have an opinion, but if you have an racist opinion, keep it to yourself. This is 2009 people, we don't want to hear it anymore. I don't want my son to hear your bad mouth! Grow up and stop seeing color,religion or whatever it is you are racist about. Love people for who they are. If you don't like someone, you don't have to slander them!