on, DC - an event largely organized by former US House leader Dick Armey and his Freedomworks network - was really an anti-Obama exercise in hatred and public vulgarity masquerading as patriotism.To be sure, the sanitized overviews of American history often leave out the harsh vitriol that is always just below the surface or real life the in this complex nation. Just ask most American young people and they will tell you that we are a middle class nation of cooperative achievers dedicated to freedom and caring for the common good. Reality, of course, is uglier and far more troubling.
Take the US experience of race as one example:
+ England would NEVER have be
en able to conquer the Americas if 98% of the indigenous population hadn't died from our diseases. England, Spain, France and Portugal were not able to "conquer" China, Africa or the Middle East - they colonized these areas - because the local people remained alive and well even in bondage. Not so in the Americas where 98% of the roughly 15 million inhabitants were killed by plague and disease.
+The reality of Black slavery is minimized and hidden for most US students - and its legacy largely ignored - so that we don't have a true understanding of this inhuman activity.
en able to conquer the Americas if 98% of the indigenous population hadn't died from our diseases. England, Spain, France and Portugal were not able to "conquer" China, Africa or the Middle East - they colonized these areas - because the local people remained alive and well even in bondage. Not so in the Americas where 98% of the roughly 15 million inhabitants were killed by plague and disease.+The reality of Black slavery is minimized and hidden for most US students - and its legacy largely ignored - so that we don't have a true understanding of this inhuman activity.
What's more, the post Civil War truths have been discarded for bland descriptions of what happened during Reconstruction and we NEVER study the years between 1890 and 1950 for they were the nadir of healthy race relations in the United States. Yet it was during this time that the
Ku Klux Klan was revived and encouraged to grow - often by leaders in the White House like Woodrow Wilson - and second class citizenship for African Americans returned throughout the North and South in what can only be called American apartheid.It should come as no shock, therefore, to note that the current leadership for the anit-Obama rallies is both essentially Southern and fundamentally Republican. What we are seeing is the ugly underbelly of the American reality in the full light of day. Look at some of the pictures from yesterday's rally and tell me I am overstating the case...
What is equally disturbing is that such images and the rhetoric of demagogues like Joe Wilson have been embraced by the leadership of the Republican party in the United States. There have always been extremists in our debates - I have seen ugly and v
vicious images of our presidents during the Vietnam and Iraq war demonstrations - but these were always at the fringe. Now they are at the center... encouraging even uglier thoughts, words and actions.
vicious images of our presidents during the Vietnam and Iraq war demonstrations - but these were always at the fringe. Now they are at the center... encouraging even uglier thoughts, words and actions.It used to grieve me - and I would fight to stop - the burning of the American flag during my anti-war days. Not that such acts should be illegal, but simply because I have such a deep and passionate love for the best of America. Today there seems to be precious little love among the opposition. I sense that crudity and being mean-spirited has now come to mean fidelity to Christ and loyalty to America for at least an overly vocal minority.
Dr. King nailed the challenge of this moment when he said: when evil men plot, good men must plan. When 
evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. And when evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Now is the time to stand and be counted...
evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. And when evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Now is the time to stand and be counted...UPDATE: Over the past few days I've been having quite a go of it in the blogosphere/facebook world with folks who are just hell bent on: 1)confusing their racism with the truth and 2)insisting that their fears are reality. Now I am all for experiential theology, but it must always be checked by the bigger picture. As the saying goes, "even the Pope has a confessor." This is a frightening - and demanding - era for those of us in the USA. To be sure, most of the ugly noise is from a wildass minority, but let's not forget that it was only a month after the end of the Civil War that President Lincoln was killed - and not too deep into his naming names phase that Bobby Kennedy was gunned down, too - a mere two months after Dr. King. An ugly, self-righteous and unchallenged minority can wreak havoc on us all.
images in this blog from the recent racist washington, dc tea party... you be the judge!
5 comments:
Your post leaves me confused about wheter you think the TEA party folks are on the fringe or at the center. Near the end, you imply that a radical fringe has moved to the center, while in your postscript, you cite Lincoln's assasination as evidence of the danger of a radical few? Which is it?
My guess is that a radical fringe (ever notice how "radical" is good or at worst neutral when applied to leftist groups, but when applied to non-statists it is a term of reproach?) has found a following because some long-dormant energies have been aroused. But it is also the case that the media is not going to show the moderate conservative side of the debate because the powers that be (Judging by Fox News' use of Glenn Beck, this includes Murdoch and co.) have a vested interest in only showing and promoting the most radical fringe.
Of course CNN and the rest of the liberal mainstream thinks that the most vitriolic and borderline racist comments represent the new "core" of the Republican party. All of these folks were already convinced conservatives were narrow-minded hillbillies and elitists who don't give a damn about the common man - so making a caricature of the current debate only furthers deeply ingrained prejudices among the left.
The level of debate in our nation is at an appalling low level. And by the by, you are not helping it.
Pastormack: it seems to me that increasingly the TEA party folk are coming to represent the mainstream of what was once a big tent in the Republican party. This grieves me and a number of folk who have had to leave the narrow and vicious tent it has become. I sense that in reality they are a loud minority but have now assumed a host of leadership/spokespeople rolls. This is very troubling.
I don't believe their rhetoric, however, is innocent or even misunderstood: it is racist and destructive whether that is Beck's suggesting that national health care is really a way to pay reparations to black folk or the disrespect shown this president over and over again.
To be sure, the energies being manipulated are deep - such is the on-going legacy of never really dealing with racism in America - as well as the economic chaos of these days. One thing that happens over and over in the US is that race is used to combat class solidarity and I see that being manipulated in these events, too.
It is clear to me that a loud minority are part of that which is doing damage to a wounded body politic. There are, of course, other factors but this needs to be called out.
I would disagree with you that some of the media is already biased against conservatives. Certainly Olberman doesn't help discourse... but most try to find the heart of the issues and do care for the common person.
I am sad that you don't sense I am contributing to the conversation, but one thing I have learned from over 30 years of ministry: white guys have to pay their dues, do a lot of listening before we speak and deal honestly with our own racism as well as the legacy of race hatred in America. And that's what I am trying for... thanks for sharing your insights.
what doesn't kill the radical right just makes the crazier.
can't stand it. hard to love these ppl when they are bent on keeping a status quo that hurts so many others.
Whether they are fringe or center matters not to me as that they are loud and feel justified in being hateful. Their level of fear leads them to believe scary things about the President. I had a person write to me that Obama's appointment of czars, which is the first side of scary lack of introspection, was going to make it so that 1>my cat can sue her 2>that one of the czars wants to taint the water supply to keep down population. To believe these things there must a level of hate boiling in them that I only have seen in people who have been tainted by racism. I don't know of any other form of thought that can lead to such uncivil discourse. Someone has feed them these lines but the scarier part is that they find them plausible.
That is what I sense, too, brother. It is ugly, vicious and so over the top with conspiracy thinking. In-freaking-credible!
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