I think it’s terrific that Obama has joined Twitter. It offers a unique opportunity to make known his point of view and follow the dialogue of others from time to time. The president’s Twitter initiative is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to play a small but important role interacting with the president. Make the most of it!

A brief word about the dark side of the Internet and social media. The Friday New York Times reported how there are some — a small minority of Twitter users with small minds — who have taken their racism to Twitter to make bigoted attacks against the nation’s first black president. I will not dignify their garbage by repeating their racist insults, but I will say this: Twitter should require, at the least, that those who abuse their free speech rights with racism and political hate should have their real names used when they write these rants of racism. Let their husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, bosses and colleagues at work know exactly who they are and exactly what poisonous thoughts they think.