Remember this lovely lady?
I'll let her tell her story in her own words. Somethin about a bus. From wikipedia:
I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.
I'm not bringing this up now to be trollish. Or to chastise anyone. I'm not gonna delve into whether or not Hillary is to blame for what happened on Fox today or whether there is an organized conspiracy of any kind working against us. There is a time for that. And there is also a time for discipline and calm.
Like what these guys had.
Even as they walked into the heart of a storm that was waiting right in front of them.
There were no technicalities for the men and women at the Selma march. They had no recourse. Noone they could turn to for protection. They did not deny what was about to happen to them. And they did not run away.
I want you to ask yourself this question. Why hasn't Barack Obama made the danger to his person an issue in this campaign? I don't think it's hard to answer, but just ask it anyway. Why, when presented with incontrivertible evidence of outright race hatred against him in certain parts of the country, has he denied it and always followed it up by talking about the basic "decency" of the American people?
I'll go ahead and give you my anwer:
It's the only chance we have.
**
There has been a lot said in this race so far, and it's only going to get worse. But we, at this point in time, are now presented with a choice. We can continue to react with emotion and outrage every time someone says something remotely suggestive (and I know some of it has been more than remote) and fan the flames higher and higher still - or we can look at the big picture. We can look at how dramatic the rise in tensions has been since February. We can think about how there are still six months to go in this thing. I'm already scared. I don't want to think about where we'll be next month, let alone November, if the rhetoric continues at this pace.
So I'm asking... asking the Daily Kos community for something very specific. I know not everyone, and probly not even a number reasonable enough to justify this diary, will take me up on it. I'm asking that noone here post, comment, or act in any way that leads to, references, or makes accusations of acts of violence. That means not using certain words and letting go of certain talking points, even if the other side does not. It means making a conscious effort to ignore or at least not to react to certain stories or comments. It means focusing on the positive in the campaign's message, and the good in the people you meet. It means toning down the hysteria in any way we can and creating an environment that will keep our man in a circle of relative calm.
And most of all, it means staring down the doberman in front of you and the gush of water heading your way from a fire hydrant and saying I will not be moved.
If you really care about the way this ends, and if you really care about him, follow his lead. Tell me you'll at least give it a thought?