OK, I think I finally have had my "Cup full" of all the hate and fear-mongering. In the past few weeks, I've heard more nasty, hate-filled attacks coming out of the McCain campaign and his "supporters" that I can take! Senator McCain, Governor Palin..are you insane? Have you NOT been paying attention to our country's history? You've CERTAINLY been around long enough to tell the stories first-hand! The headlines and the behavior at McCain-Palin rallies is nothing new to this country. Oh yes, we've been down this path before.
These have been the stories that I have been reading about in the past weeks or have listened to on TV/online.
Hate...Fear...Bigotry...Ignorance...Aaaaagh!! ENOUGH!
Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!"
W's "Ann Coulter" actress beaten in home attack
Obama supporters receive death threats over yard signs
More Hatred At Rallies: "Off With His Head!"
McCain Categorically Proud Of Hateful Rally Attendees: "Obama Is A Terrorist!"
Dead Bear at WCU with Obama signs around neck
McCain-Palin Rally Attendees: "Obama Is A Terrorist!"
McCain Embraces the Hate at Rally
Nightly (Gulp) Special Comments: Hatred Repackaged As "The Real America"
(PS. Keith, as usual, you nailed that one!)
These have been the stories that I have been reading about in the past weeks or have listened to on TV/online.
"Socialist", "Terrorist", "Traitor" ,"He wasn’t born in this country", "He’s anti-American" , "His wife is anti-American" , "Who is this guy?" , "He’s not one of us?", "Hang him?" , "Kill Him?" The headlines and the behavior at McCain-Palin rallies is nothing new to this country. Oh yes, we've been down this path before. These are NOT words or behavior to play with to see if you’ll get a rise in the polls. For a nation that has not fully healed from the wounds of our past, how dare they play around with this stuff! John McCain claims "country first". Country first my ass! John McCain claims his "feelings were hurt" by the comparison to George C. Wallace. Really? It’s getting to the point where McCain is more comparable to Wallace than he is to Bush. Robocalls spewing hate...pictures of Obama on a foodstamp with watermelon and chicken...supporters hanging Obama effigies from trees...rally attendees calling for Obama to be "killed"...and John McCain says he’s "Proud of his supporters".
ENOUGH!!!!
See, what disgusts me the most about this (and believe me, there's plenty of disgust to go around) is the old adage: "If we dont' learn from history we are destined to repeat it". And with that, Congressman Lewis was SPOT ON!
For those not familiar with the shameful history of George C. Wallace and the eery resemblance to John McCain's shameful campaign...
1958 May 6: George Wallace experiences his first defeat by incumbent John Patterson in the primary for Alabama's gubernatorial race. Patterson ran with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan. Wallace had spoken out against the KKK and refused its support, receiving the NAACP's endorsement. He lost the election by more than 64,000 votes. This defeat marked a turning point in his politics and campaign style.
1959 January: Now a hard-line segregationist, Wallace refuses to cooperate with the Civil Rights Commission, designed to investigate voting rights abuses. Although he ultimately surrendered local voting records to avoid jail time, Wallace used this stand to court the white vote in the next gubernatorial election.
June 1962: Running on a pro-segregation, pro-states' rights platform, Wallace is elected governor of Alabama in a landslide victory.
January 14, 1963: Wallace delivers his "segregation now, segregation forever" inaugural speech.
A country already filled with gasoline-soaked hatred has now had a match thrown on it.
June 11, 1963: Wallace makes his "stand in the schoolhouse door" at the University of Alabama, temporarily blocking the admission of two black students who have legally enrolled at the University. Although Wallace soon backs down, footage of the event was broadcast on national television.
June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers, an NAACP worker in Mississippi, is murdered by white supremacist Byron de la Beckwith. Evers, a civil rights activist, was assassinated on June 12, 1963 at the age of 38 in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi as he returned from work. Evers’ wife and children heard the shots and ran to the front door where they saw him laying in a pool of blood with his keys in his hand.
August 28, 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial to the 250,000 people gathered for the peaceful March on Washington. (He was later assassinated April 4, 1968).
September 15, 1963: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is bombed by the KKK. Four African American girls die in the blast, sparking armed conflict between blacks and whites. Although bombings of black churches had been occurring throughout the Deep South and particularly in Birmingham since 1948, this tragic event galvanizes the Civil Rights Movement.
November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president.
Yes, this election is going to make history, but we should do so without repeating it. John McCain is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous. In his desire to become our next president, he's thrown every sense of principle he once had out the window. (But this we've already known). So I'd like to know, how far down this dark road of history is John McCain trying to take this? And, when the hell are the cops and feds going to take these crackpots serious and start locking some of these clowns up? After we've had another Medgar Evans incident? After another incident with four little girls in a church?
ENOUGH!!
We've seen this country divided. We've seen the history of hate, bigotry, ignorance, and fear fueled by politicians on a political platform that lead to destruction and violence. And now, 45 years later, we see the signs of an ugly history "rearing it's head".
ENOUGH!!
Time to take this shit serious, move this country forward and MAKE history, not repeat it.