By Stephanie Gross
Staff Writer
There is a place and time for everything and Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was certainly not the place for president Barack Obama to be snapping a selfie.
As teenagers, we are very familiar with the term “selfie”, as we frequently snap photos of ourselves with our iPhones at school, sporting events and with friends.
The pictures are often amusing and funny. We have a good time snapping the pictures and looking at them with our friends and families. Such photos often make us laugh at ourselves.
However there are times when taking a selfie is not appropriate, especially at a funeral. We all know it would be in bad taste for a teenager to take a selfie at a funeral.
On Dec. 10, while President Barack Obama was representing the people of the United States at the memorial service for former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, he deemed it appropriate to snap a selfie of himself, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Prime Minister of Denmark, and David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
A photographer captured President Obama grinning from ear to ear as first lady Michelle Obama looks off in the distance with a stern look on her face.
The selfie is quite disgusting as President Obama was at a memorial service to honor Nelson Mandela and because the president was representing the citizens of our country at this service.
The entire world saw our president and two other world leaders behaving childishly at a public funeral. Twitter and the Internet were filled with tweets , comments and articles from people throughout the planet regarding the selfie. Many of the comments and articles were critical of the three leaders. Even Saturday Night Live weighed in on the matter with an opening skit that poked fun at the president’s behavior.
As an American, President Obama did not do any justice to our country by snapping a quick photo of himself with other world leaders. He was in South Africa to honor Nelson Mandela, not to add new goofy pictures to his photo library.
President Obama’s conduct was inappropriate. Even a high school student knows better.
