The Hawaii Department of Health, unlucky keeper of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate, has been bombarded with hundreds of demands for information since the birther fervor heated up in 2008. According to Janice Okubo, the department’s public information officer, many of those requests come from the same people over and over again, and all of them have come from outside the state of Hawaii.
TIME obtained a sampling of these requests Tuesday. Reading through them, it’s easy to understand why the department granted President Obama an exception to Hawaii’s public records law and just released this thing. Here are a couple of examples of what they were inundated with:
4/26/2011 (7:18:41)
Sharon Rondeau
The Post & Email, Inc. Editor and OwnerDEATH THREAT
Hello, my newspaper has been investigating the background of Barack Hussein Obama, who claims to have been born in Hawaii. As you know, there is much circumstantial evidence that he was not, and your own governor has stated, in contradiction to Dr. Chiyome Fukino, that there is no long-form birth certificate on file for Obama in Hawaii.
Today I have received a death threat from someone who, while not stating openly that he is employed by you, used the term “”We”” in response to an article I wrote here: http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/04/12/breaking-from-hawaii-no-more-long-form-birth-certificates/
Since the article was directed at the Hawaii Health Department’s recent refusal to issue copies of long-form birth certificates to those with “”a direct and tangible interest in the record,”” I am wondering if this person is employed by you, hence the use of the pronoun “”We.””
Here is the footprint left at my website:
Jimmy Z
[Redacted]
Submitted on 2011/04/26 at 10:44 AM | In reply to cbms.Bring it on b**** We have a deadly and BLOODY surprise waiting for you the MOMENT you try to FORCE your way on this.
And another:
4/11/2011 (2:55:12)
PASS AMERICAN TAX PAYING VOTER
QUESTION???
WHERE IS BARRY OBAMAS BIRTH CERTIFICATE??? THE WORLD WANTS TO KNOW IF OBAMA WAS BORN IN THE USA, AND YOUR STATE SEEMS TO HIDING ALL THE REAL FACTS. I QUESTION WHAT KIND OF RECORD KEEPING DOES HAWAII HAVE WHEN YOU CANNOT PRODUCE THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE FOR ONE PERSON WHO WAS SUPPOSE TO BE BORN IN HAWAII. COULD IT BE OBAMA WAS NEVER BORN IN HAWAII??? SHOW THE WORLD THE ACTUAL HAWAII BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!!!!!!!
Will the release of Obama’s long-form certificate make life at the Department of Health easier? Probably. But one certainly still feels for the registrar at Occidental College.