I don’t remember ever experiencing the hatred against almost anyone let alone the man we the people elected our President just one year ago. It is not just the vitriolic attacks from extreme right wing writers and talk-show hosts; that was easily but sadly predictable. They are the same people who ignored the fact that the approved federal budgets did not include the two wars because that would show what the country’s tenuous financial condition really was; the same people who eagerly proclaimed belief in a fictitious link between Bin Laden and Saadam; the same people who to this day think that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Remember the appointed leader of the Republican Party, the anointed candidate for President trying to continue the smoke and mirror economics with his utterance “the fundamentals of the American economy are sound” when almost every economist not connected with the party in power said otherwise.
Never mind.
All that is history as is the fact that more Americans died in Iraq than on 9/11 and all the other combined terror attacks against America (Kenya, Tanzania, USS Cole, First WTC); never mind that the raison d’être for the war were wrong and logically therefore the deaths of so many thousands of our young men and women and the wounding of multiple thousands more is by definition of logic morally wrong.
Never mind.
Ignore that, that and so much more. Ignore facts and re-construct history. Most important, don’t write e-mails even remotely criticizing the first nine years of this new millennium; this period that Time magazine has rightly called the Decade from Hell.
Never mind.
Better you think to write or paraphrase or forward to countless others hatred of your, yes your President; the man who has been in office ten months. Tell people he is not qualified because he was born in Kenya; tell people he is a Muslim as if that alone would be bad? Call him a mongrel. Criticize every detail about him, his parents; call his mother a whore and his father worse. Tell the readers that his wife slept her way into college and that her brother is just a dumb jock.
Writing or forwarding these things must bestow a warm and fuzzy feeling; perhaps something to share with your children or grand-children. Your legacy to them; something to be proud of.
While you are at it, don’t bother with “Love thy enemies”.
Create stories about “real agendas”; scare the American people with innuendo about element upon element of one person’s life or decisions or writings knowing that he will not answer because he is what we the people elected him to be: President of the United States and no President ever involve themselves in arguing against such hateful discussions nor should they. Other than President Truman (note to the vitriols: the title goes with the name) who threatened a writer for demeaning his daughter’s singing ability, or President Franklin Roosevelt defending his Scotty, Falla, slander and liable actions are rarely taken by sitting Presidents.
Blame everything that happens even if it happened long before January 20th, 2009 on “the current occupant”. Blame him for dithering when the person who uttered this blame himself ignored the Afghan situation for years. Why should facts matter?
Never mind.
Of course President Obama collapsed the economy and ruined healthcare and made GM make cars that no one wanted and made us dependent on Chinese imports to a level that is staggering. At the same time he ordered the downfall of Lehman and single-handedly created credit default swaps to effectively crash the housing market worldwide. What power this one man has and all in ten months or even more for six months before he was even sworn! Oh and yes, tell people his oath like is birth records was false.
Dig up articles from minor publications written by lesser known people and offer these as evidence of something when the only thing that undertaking proves is the wisdom of the Founding Fathers who gave us the First Amendment.
While you are at it you might want to read it: that one simple sentence also allows people to peaceably assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Town Hall meetings driving out people who do not think your way or tea parties that bar any contrary opinions seem to disregard this.
Never mind.
Listen to the Joe the Plumbers; they must speak for America, no?
I see e-mails comparing the President both to Hitler and to Stalin which if not so disgusting would be humorous as these two individuals are tantamount to being book-ends for right and left extreme views. Do the writers know this or even care?
Never mind.
I see a talk show host who after being told by his producer during his presentation that the premise for his daily rant was false as it was taken from a Sunday Satire column responds not with an apology or even a criticism of his writers. No, he responds by saying that he believes that there is some truth in everything and thus he stands by what he has uttered. Not amazingly but expectedly, his followers agreed. Why should we not be surprised with everything else being tossed about for public consumption?
I do not understand hatred or loathing or revulsion; it serves no real purpose except perhaps to incite people to violence. We are a violent people; much more than most other civilized countries. Do we need more violence? Do we need more leaders killed? How many developed and educated countries can count Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy dead; Presidents Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Frankin Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, Reagan who were attacked. That is ten out of 43 - almost 25%.
Do the authors of these writings and those who send them on to millions of people give a momentary thought to the possible consequences? Please let them remember that all rights like Free Speech mandate by designation corresponding responsibilities.
Why am I writing today? I have been thinking about it for weeks but recently I heard a number that chilled me: 400%. Four Hundred Percent.
That is the increase in threats against President Obama since he was sworn in.
Please let us not reap what we sow.
That we must mind.
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