The Black Panthers were actually called "The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense," and their name spelled it out: Black people needed to defend themselves, because the Police certainly weren't doing it. (Hell, half the time it the Police Black people needed protection from.)
I do not like guns, and as a native Texan i know how dangerous it is for everyone to be armed to the teeth. But at times, in places, some people do need guns for self-defense. Right now, liberals, progressives, Obama, and America are at the point where it may be time for the RIGHT (not right-wing) people to have some guns.
Our democracy is threatened. As Eric Boehlert pointed out today "The Last Time Right-Wing Hatred Ran Wild Like This a President Was Killed." As someone who was a 2 year-old still stuck in traffic after seeing JFK leave Ft. Worth on his way to Dallas when the news came over that he was dead, I lived with the legacy of this hate. And i am scared literally to death. So I am afraid it is time we took up arms, and used them if necessary to help protect the president.
Please read this important article:
http://www.alternet.org/...
And sign the petition to protect the president:
http://act.credoaction.com/...
Yes, I know this is a dangerous proposition. I know what happened to the Black Panthers: many of them were shot to death in their beds or homes by "Policemen," and history has often blasphemed them as radicals who got what they deserved. But as bad as it is today, in most places cops can't shoot Black people with the impunity they could before the Panthers arrived and encouraged people to fight like their lives depended on it.
But we've backslid, again. Today, the right-wing terrorists who pray for Obama's death and bring guns to his rallies think they can do so with impunity. Soon, as sure as racism is a powerful force in America, one of them will aim one of those guns at the president. While i know the Gun Nut belief that you can stop every crime simply by having everyone armed is fucking ridiculous, it is possible that having some well-armed people on our side alongside the right-wing terrorists could end up making a difference in this the most crucial of situations. Obviously, if something happens to Obama, this county will go up in flames, perhaps deservedly so.
As it stands now, each tea-bag crowd contains many people fully stocked with the hatred, racism, and insanity it takes to try to kill a president. I absolutely DO NOT advocate taking guns to tea-bag rallies. But i am unfortunately coming to believe we do need to be armed at any Obama rally where tea-baggers have guns. Yes, the chances of actually having a gun right where the assassin waits is low, but at this dangerous point in America's history, we need every bit of little help we can get in defending our president.
To Keep Hope Alive, we have to keep Barack Obama alive. And right now, he is in the crosshairs of some of the most racist and well-armed traitors and terrorists in American history.