Are we back in the Jim Crow times??? Actually, folks, we never left and it took a Black President to bring these people’s true feelings to the surface. They no longer hide in the backgrounds and in the shadows.
It’s time to hold the Republican Party and People in General Accountable.
You’ve probably heard about Tea Party members shouting “Nigger!” at Black Congressmen during a protest in Washington, D.C. last weekend. One of the protesters spat on Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, while another called openly gay Representative Barney Frank a “faggot” as the laughing crowd imitated his lisp.1
But Saturday was just the most recent example of the intolerance and hate coming from right-wing extremists this past year. At times it’s been instigated by Republican leaders. When not, it’s usually condoned and seen as part of a strategy to score politically. Either way, it’s completely unacceptable and has to stop.
It’s time to confront Republican leadership and force them to take responsibility for the atmosphere they’ve helped create. Join us in drawing a line in the sand, and ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/?id=1738-927209
We’re calling on RNC Chair Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to publicly do two simple things:
Unequivocally condemn bigotry and hate among their supporters, and make clear that those who embrace it have no place in their party.
Make clear that they will not tolerate fear-mongering and coded appeals to racism from officials in the Republican party, at any level.
Republican leaders publicly denounced Sunday’s ugly scene, but they failed to acknowledge that this is only the latest incident in a pattern of violent rhetoric, racially charged imagery, and paranoid conspiracy theories at Tea Party rallies.2 Many Tea Partiers aren’t simply about dissent — they use fear and hatred to assault the very legitimacy of our elected leaders. It’s the worst America has to offer.
Despite this, Republican leaders court the Tea Party movement while methodically supporting, exacerbating and exploiting their fear and anger for cynical political ends.3 This is nothing less than a betrayal of American values, and it’s up to us to force the Republicans to stop aiding and abetting this enterprise:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/?id=1738-927209
The Tea Party movement has been marked by racially inflammatory and violent outbursts since its inception a year ago. GOP leaders are trying to pass off this weekend’s assaults on Congressmen Lewis, Cleaver, Clyburn and Frank as isolated incidents. But when so-called “isolated incidents” crop up again and again, a pattern starts to emerge. The examples are numerous.
At rallies held to protest tax day last year, Tea Partiers carried signs that announced “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” “The American Taxpayers are the Jews for Obama’s Oven,” and “Guns Tomorrow!”4 The Republican National Committee had endorsed the rallies, and RNC Chairman Michael Steele encouraged Tea Partiers to send a “virtual tea bag” to President Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership.5 After reports of the fear-mongering signs surfaced, Steele did nothing to distance his party from the lunatic fringe. He has even gone so far as to say that if he didn’t have his current position, he’d be “out there with the tea partiers.”6 Some Republican governors even planned a “Tea Party 2.0″ for the following month in an effort to build on the rallies’ momentum.7
The Tea Party’s venomous rhetoric picked up steam over the summer, when angry mobs flooded town hall meetings legislators had organized as sites for rational, civil debate on health care reform. After one meeting in Atlanta, a swastika was painted on the office of Congressman David Scott (D-GA), who had also received a flier addressed to “nigga David Scott.” 8 Some protesters showed up at town hall meetings carrying guns, including at least one man who was armed at an event where the President was speaking.9 Again, Republicans responded to these tactics with silence, doing nothing to denounce them.
Similarly, there was no public outcry from Republican leadership when Mark Williams, a leader of the Tea Party movement, was exposed for having described the President as “an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief” on his blog.10 Instead, members of the GOP continued to show up to and endorse Tea Party rallies. And as recently as Sunday — the day that the historic health care bill passed the House — Republican members of the House riled up the same Tea Party crowd that had earlier harassed their fellow members with hate and bigotry.
Our country deserves better than this. No matter what party one supports, we should all take strong action to support civil, honest, and respectful public debate. Can you take a moment to call on Michael Steele, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell to denounce the racist rhetoric and fear-mongering that have been ongoing, significant characteristics of the Tea Party movement, and tell those who embrace these divisive and un-American beiefs that they have no place in their party, as members or leaders? And when you do, please ask your family and friends to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/?id=1738-927209
Thanks and Peace,
– James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Milton and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
March 23rd, 2010
1. “Tea Party Protests: ‘Ni**er,’ ‘Fa**ot’ Shouted At Members Of Congress,” Huffington Post, 3-20-2010
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/127?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=7
2. “10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs And Extensive Photo Coverage From Tax Day Protests,” Huffington Post, 4-16-09
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/128?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=9
3. “Memo Reveals GOP Plan to Exploit Fear of Obama,” AOL News, 3-4-2010
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/137?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=11
4. See Reference 2
5. “Tax Day Tea Parties Officially Endorsed By Republican Party,” Huffington Post, 5-15-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/138?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=13
6. “Steele: I’d join the tea parties,” Politico, 1-15-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/136?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=15
7. “GOP govs plan Tea Party sequel,” Politico, 5-12-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/131?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=17
8. “Rep. David Scott’s (D-Ga) office spray-painted with Swastika,” Daily Kos, 8-11-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/132?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=19
9. “Armed and Dangerous?” Talking Points Memo, 8-11-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/133?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=21
10. “Tea party leader calls Obama a welfare thug,” The Loop, 9-15-09
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/134?akid=1396.922475.DxK9Yb&t=23
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.
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