And If You Think Its Not About Race (246 hits)

... take a gander at what happened last night at a town hall hosted by MO Senator Claire McCaskill. A group of black women came to the hall carrying posters with images of Rosa Parks. There were others with other signs there. McCaskill asked everyone to put their signs down. The woman puts her sign down. Then a reporter comes over and asks to see her sign. As she’s showing the sign to the reporter, a rage-filled, cowardly bigot rushes over and tears the sign out of her hand.

Watch it:



I understand that they arrested the man but then they also escorted the woman out of the hall because she lost it, which is understandable under the circumstance. That’s supposed to be “fair.” But the crowd cheered what this cretin did, so it’s clear where the sentiment is. How can ANYONE cheer the tearing down of an image of Rosa Parks?

Watching this made me realize something. I would not have been a good foot soldier for King’s nonviolent movement. God knows they dealt with more than what we just saw here. But had that been me, or someone with me, especially if it was a woman and God forbid it was my wife, mother, daughter or sister, because I would have knocked that punk’s teeth out and rammed that sign down his throat before I knew it. That’s what I felt watching this.

And I hate to say it but maybe that's what needs to happen. An example needs to be made. These people are being allowed to go too far without any consequences. They get in faces and scream and shout, push and shove. They come to intimidate, even bringing guns, knowing that most likely nothing will happen to them. (Imagine if you or I brought a gun to a Bush rally – we’d be in Guantanamo to this day) The police are treating them with kid gloves, the media pretends as if these people are just “concerned citizens” expressing their “rights to free speech.” They are being bullies and getting away with it.

And some of these people, God bless ‘em, are just as ignorant as they can be, but at the same time they are just consumed with hatred. They really believe the b.s. they spout because they’ve been fed a steady diet of hate radio, Reaganism and GOP know-nothingism for decades. They’ve been conditioned to blame all of their shortcomings and all of the ways the corporate system shafts them just as its allowed to shaft everyone else, on blacks. We have nothing to do but deal with it when it happens to us; they get the “luxury” of blaming us. But we’re supposed to be the ones who “whine.” Please! And they have to blame it on somebody, because they’ve also been taught that as whites, they are at the top of the heap, only to now find themselves “under” a black president. Poetic justice?

You almost want to feel sorry for them because they are the ones being used. The insurance industry is not going to reward any of them with respectful, decent healthcare if they win this fight for them. They will continue to take advantage of them just like they are any other consumer.

I am not advocating violence; what I said above was just what I felt I may have done, given the emotion I felt at seeing what could have been my mother, wife, daughter or sister being manhandled like that, to cheers. But there needs to be some serious pushback from us.

Whether you have healthcare or not; whether you realize it or not, this IS about you.
Posted By:
Wednesday, August 12th 2009 at 5:59PM
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