Back to that clueless bumper sticker. Let me rewrite it in ways that have a greater basis in American history:
“The last time we mixed religion and politics, we got Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
via God, these people annoy me | WHYY News and Information | WHYY.
Exactly. You can’t inveigh against bigotry and ignorance by being bigoted and ignorant.
Greg Manning, whose wife, Laura, was severely burned in the World Trade Center attacks, stood before the crowd and said, “Thousands are already dead because of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s choices. We do not want to see . . . hundreds of thousands dead because of the Attorney General’s choices.”
Andrew McCarthy, the former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney who led the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, also gave a speech, declaring that Holder didn’t “understand what rule of law has always been in wartime.” He said, “It’s military commissions. It’s not to wrap our enemies in our Bill of Rights.”
“Traitor!” someone shouted.
Edith Lutnick, who works for the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, told the crowd, “My brother, Gary, lost his life that day.” The 9/11 victims, she said, “were murdered by the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and we do not want him and his fellow-terrorists tried in that building. . . . We need to tell Eric Holder that we will be victims no more.”
“Lynch Holder!” an onlooker cried.
via Eric Holder and the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial : The New Yorker.
Our fear is on display. (Not to mention our racism.) I can’t help but think how “the terrorists” are chuckling at us over this. I think Jon Stewart had it right when asked about the KSM trial. Skip to 4:05.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Newt Gingrich | ||||
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Earning The Temporary Hatred Of Your Children – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“This is hard for a lot of people to hear, but in my family, in my neighborhood, and in my community this is what part of what parenting meant. If you weren’t feeling the edge of the sword on your ass, then you were responding to the possibility of it. One thing I learned, while touring for my book, was that a lot of people consider this to be child abuse. It really was news to me and ultimately unthinkable. Almost everyone I’d ever known had come up the same way. My book editor would joke, while reading, the manuscript about his grandmother coming up from the South and making him go search for a switch. In Harlem.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Truth be known, I’m trying to avoid it as much as possible. But push come to shove, I’m going to shove. Better me than the police who will not temper their assault nor will give or repeat verbal warnings prior.
This morning I saw some college undergrads analyze the healthcare bill more incisively than any legislator, policy wonk, or pundit. That is both a source of pride in the students I’m privileged to teach and terror in that none of our leaders in Washington seem to get what the hell is going on.
This is a black eye most of all on my President Barack Obama who, as a generally supportive but frustrated professor said, “should have brought doctors and economists together to craft a real solution” to be debated in Congress. I once thought his standards too high, but mine were too low. And it is clearly reflected in the bill.
I’m still optimistic because our system seems to be self correcting over the long haul. I pray we correct soon. Until then I’ll at least enjoy the GOP get pummelled by fact checks.
The Limits Of Compassion – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“I am aware of all the socio-economic forces at work they make black communities more subject to violence. I’m in all for trying to ameliorate those forces. In the meantime, I’m all for doing whatever it takes to protect the rest of us–particularly young black kids–from hooliganism. “
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
That’s pretty much the black position. Both-and vs. either-or. But I don’t think there is a limit to compassion, it’s a sense of justice. These cats need to be punished for doing something wrong and unnecessary.
Connecting The Dots – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“There’s a lot at work here: 1.) Race-baiters have, for the past few decades, repeatedly outfoxed anti-racists. Beck and Cornyn know how to walk up to the line. Carter is from a generation of liberals who never understood why people didn’t agree them about Willie Horton. Thus Carter doesn’t insinuate, he doesn’t calibrate, he just speaks, political effects be damned. 2.) The dominant school of journalism holds that it’s safer to talk about the effect of talking about race on Obama, rather than actually talking about its effects, period. That’s true for most things though–reporters are generally more interested in gamesmanship, than issues. 3.) A lot of reporters take Beck and Cornyn’s race-baiting is taken as a given. I’ll be shocked if anyone asks Cornyn about this. I don’t think they much care.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coats.)
Technorati Tags:
obama, race, race-baiting, glenn beck
I have been disturbed lately by the apparent lack in basic common sense in our public discourse. In other words, shit is getting real crazy lately. Between people disputing demonstrable facts and holding positions they undermine in defending said positions, it’s like we are debating reality. I’m going to put up a fuller post soon as I think on this a bit more.
It’s Kanye’s Fault – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“This is history through the veil, again. It’s virtually impossible to be a black person and believe that Americans were somehow more humble in the past. Our very exists springs from an act of immodesty.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Technorati Tags:
race, society, Kanye West
How To Represent – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“But the portion that always amazed were the black kids (a significant number of them biracial) who hailed from these nice suburbs (River Forest, Walnut Creek etc.), excelled in school, but came to Howard, almost out of a kind of fatigue. The fatigue is exactly what Andrew describes here–the pressure to be a representative, to explain your groups ‘position,’ the stifling inability to, say, be an asshole and not have it say something about your folks. “
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Experienced that for a long time in school.
Race Is A Factor But… – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“There’s a tendency to lump anti-black racism in with all the serious problems presented when you try to make a democracy work. There is always a danger of becoming single-minded, of bringing to bear a myopic analysis which sees one thing in everything. Moreover, watermelon jokes are a long way from red-lining, and in seeing how far we’ve come, the temptation is to dismiss how far we have to go.But from a black perspective, it’s a temptation you can ill-afford. Racism cost us dollars a half-century ago. Today it costs us quarters–but it still costs.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
