Who’s sane in American politics? Instead of sticking to issues and things that make a difference to how we live, we are bombarded by the use and misuse of names as symbols of the ethnic and religious diversity that should make us proud as Americans. Perversely, names are being used as thinly coded slurs referencing Barack Obama’s ethnicity and his father’s religion.

As many brave Danes were said to have worn Jewish Stars during the Nazi occupation to show support for their Jewish Community, I suggest showing solidarity with Barack Hussein Obama and taking the sting out of his middle name.

You do not have to support Sen. Obama to know that using names as ethnic weapons is wrong and dishonorable. In our history we have sniggered Jewish names, Russian names, Italian and Irish names—implying by exaggerated emphasis on their foreignness that they, and therefore those who carried them, were not “real Americans.” Now is the time to end this reprehensible tradition.

The Right wing of the Republican Party has been repeating all three of Barack Obama’s names. They snidely insert, at the top of their voices and with dripping innuendo, his middle name HUSSEIN! Of course this is done by his opponents to remind the world, frightened white folks, devout Christians and nervous Jews that Sen. Obama is not a WASP. In fact his first name and middle names are Arabic—and as John Stewart pointed out during the Oscars, his first name is one letter away from Osama and his middle name is the name of our old enemy Saddam Hussein.

When the anti-Obama people do this, the pro-Obama folks act all hurt and question how dare they smear him with his own name. The anti-folks respond with feigned innocence that they can’t imagine why Obama would not be proud of his names and his heritage. Their mock naiveté on this is not becoming.

His names are Barack Hussein Obama—and there is not a thing wrong with Semitic names. Instead of being hurt every time someone uses the Hussein reference and having to re-argue its propriety, why not just embrace it? Change the intended epithet into something to be proud of. Don’t either apologize for it or act as if the speaker owes you an apology.

Let’s face it, Obama cannot change his middle name to Fred or Bill. Politicians do change their ideas for the sake of electability but not Obama. Some politicians even change religions for God’s sake. Well, not actually for God’s sake but for the sake of their own boundless ambition. Henri IV of France was born a Protestant but famously remarked “Paris was worth a Mass,” and so converted to Roman Catholicism in order to rule all of France. This would not be Barack’s style. Besides changing his name would be creepy, inauthentic and counter both to his message and his substance. Changing his name to Barack X Obama might also send the wrong signal.

This “What’s in a name?” issue will be played out for the entire presidential campaign (assuming that Sen. Obama is the nominee). Let’s get it out of the shadows and change it from a thing unspeakable and wear it proudly as a badge.

I am proposing that good and decent people of all genders, political persuasions and faith traditions change our own middle names to Hussein. This is exactly what I will do for the duration of this election. The fact that Hussein means “Handsome One” in Arabic states a fact about Obama and a little audacity of hope for me. I will put my Hebrew middle name Kasrael—Crown of Israel—on the shelf and proudly become Jonathan Hussein Dobrer.