by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I have said it in this space before: "Somebody is going to die!" It is just a matter of time before some of these teabagging fools come completely unhinged and begin shooting. For the most part, these are people who aren't playing with a full deck of cards. They are easily duped, quickly incited, and damned hard to control when they get rolling. The teabagging movement is a train wreck looking for a place to happen, and in short order it will produce a shameful disaster.
Somebody is going to get killed. Some person who has done nothing more than try to serve his nation in a positive manner is going to be gunned down or blown up by a lunatic - an insane person who believes he is doing God's work - a madman who has been inflamed by Fox, or Rush, or Glenn, or Ann, or Sarah, or Michele, or John Boehner. And when the shit does hit the fan, all of the usual cheerleaders for anarchy will sit piously back and tut-tut, secure in the righteous knowledge that the crime was committed by a sad person who was driven to murder by liberalism run amok. It had nothing to do with them and their constitutional use of free speech.
Like hell it doesn't!
The brush fire has been set and it is raging out of control. Several congressmen who voted for health care reform have had bricks thrown through their constituent office windows and doors. The brother of one congressman in Virginia had the propane line to his house cut after a blogger printed the address (thinking it was the congressman's house) and suggested people stop by and tell him what they thought about his vote. The congressman's brother lives in that house with his wife and four children - all under the age of eight.
Congressman Bart Stupak released tapes of vitriolic calls that have come into his office over the past few days - poetic efforts that expressed sentiments like he should bleed out of his ass, get cancer, and die! These cretins are truly unhinged!
Sarah Palin has told her twitter community that it is time to "reload," and she announced her list of Democratic congressional targets on a map on her Facebook page, with each of her selected Democrats targeted with a "cross hairs" emblem. Not too subtle, Sarah!
Over the past few days Democratic members of Congress have been spit upon, called names (nigger, faggot, wetback), and accused of killing babies. They have suffered this abuse from the loony fringe of the Republican Party, but that nutty fringe has been torched and fanned by opportunistic Republicans who think that they can turn the commotion into votes.
It's time for Republican leaders, if there are any left, and the right-wing media, to step forward and try to put out this fire that they have started and gleefully fanned. If they sit back and do nothing, there will be blood - and it will be on there hands.
2 comments:
In April, 1968 a lone gunman assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The nation erupted, city by city, in tragic outbursts of violence. The protests began peaceably but were co-opted by criminal elements.
Tension in Kansas City was high but events did not turn violent until April 9th, five days after King's death.
Kansas City police fired tear gas into a crowd which refused to disperse from city hall. In the aftermath 100 or so adults were arrested, 20 or so were hospitalized, and five were killed.
The violence reached a pitched fever with the manufacture and use of Molotov cocktails. Ironically it was the "Black" neighborhoods which stood in ruin. Yes, back then the correct term was Black or Colored Person.
In Kansas City, after the core of the community had been torched, life returned to normal. I could see the stunned look of loss on the faces of my African American friends.
The big question everyone wanted, in finger pointing fashion, to know was "were you there?".
Sure, one of my co-workers said. Yes, I had a job after school. "The first night," she said, "was kind of fun, We were all riding around in our cars, yelling, and letting off steam." Then her face grew solemn. "After that things got scary."
The civil rights protests which began loud, but peacefully, were taken over by the criminal elements in the Black community.
I vividly recall an old hotel on Prospect Avenue which was riddled with bullet holes. Turns out a gang of criminals holed up in that building and used its height to fire, sniper style, at police, firefighters, and anyone else they could shoot at.
The police surrounded the building and warfare equaling anything Iraq has offered up ensued.
I still remember those early April nights of '68. The dean of Kansas City radio was on the air telling travelers not to come to K.C. tonight. The night sky glowed with an orange-yellow hue. A gunfight took place in my back yard.
My friend was right, things got scary. Things got scary, not because of all the Black persons, but because of those criminals that seized the opportunity to do bad things.
The riots ended because the overwhelming number of Black Kansas City residents are hard working and law abiding.
The leadership of the Black community stepped up and the criminals got rounded up and arrested.
The shot up hotel on Prospect Avenue was never reported on television or the newspapers.
In the days that followed I approached six or seven of Kansas City's finest, they worked off duty where I worked. As the burning question, of finger wagging import, was still "were you there?" I asked them if they hadn't been at that hotel on the night in question.
Seldom do you get to see the faces of several cops go blank simultaneously.
The point is that the overwhelming number of Republicans and Tea Party members are good, decent, hard working, and law abiding folk, just like the overwhelming number of Black folk in Kansas City.
It only takes a spark to set off a tinder box. It is not sufficient for those whose words incite the weak minded to violence to merely denounce the wrong they invoked.
Republican leaders, right wing talk radio, Fox cable "news", and others who continue to spew hate and discord need to be held accountable for the seeds of violence they are planting.
Amen to Mike's comments. Aging may not always provide wisdom, though in his case it certainly does, but aging does provide perspective. It is when you get older that you can look back and say, "been there, done that," and truly understand the horrific consequences of where we are currently heading. Many of these professional haters are old enough to understand the error of their ways - if they would only pull their heads out of their butts and look around at the real world.
Health care reform isn't about politics, its about behaving as human beings and saving lives.
Health care should be a right, not a privilege.
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