We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him. I would to God the last one of them was in Africa and that none of them had ever been brought to our shores. - (Editor's note - Tillman currently has a statue dedicated to him on the grounds of the SC State House)
Rush Limbaugh, March 21, 2009:
"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president."
Mayor Joseph Smitherman of Selma, Alabama 1965:
Rush Limbaugh, 2009:
Former SC Senator Strom Thurmond, 1948:
Glenn Beck, 2009:
There isn't a thing wrong with disagreeing with President Obama. But there is something inherently ugly with using covert racism and evoking images of Hilter, Nazis and brown-shirted fascism simply because you don't like his policies. And there is something equally wrong with trying to push off the seriousness of these attacks by whining that "liberals did the same thing to George Bush."
When folks say that, I feel like I'm a parent trying to talk down to a child. Common sense dictates that two wrongs never make a right.
Although between you and me, I seem to never hear about the liberal crazies until some folks on the right evoke their presence in order to blunt attention away from the extremities on their side. I'm not saying that liberal crazies aren't out there, but seriously how many people who thought Bush was behind 9-11 was given televised interview time in comparison to the interviews given by Orly Taitz or the other birthers and assorted sufferers of "Obama Derangement Syndrome."
Maybe I'm being overly paranoid but this entire thing is spooking the hell out of me. President Obama is already receiving an average of over 30 threats a day as it is.
All it takes is one spurred-on loony, one weapon, and one opportunity. And then presto, we have the history lesson to end all history lessons - a 21st century lynching.
We already have some of the ingredients for a lynching, i.e. white folks being exploited by the agents of fear filling their ear with nonsense about their rights and "way of life" being taken away.
The only difference is that this isn't a small Southern town in the civil rights movement era and the players aren't a lone black activist and a stubborn white community.
This mess is happening on a grander scale involving the first African-American President of the United States, a small multitude of scared citizens, and talking heads throwing out verbal bombs about FEMA death camps, euthanasia, and snitch patrols while not caring where they land or who they strike.
Or worse, caring very much about where they land and who they strike.
I pray that my fear doesn't become a reality but if it does, are we going to remember those who spurred this mess on. Such as these folks:
"Words can generate deeds and he who verbally incites strife is as guilty as those who physically creates strife." - Aesop
