This is the clearest
indicator of what has happened in this country over
the last few years. Has America always been a
fertile ground for hate - yes. However, we had
grown accustomed to see such open and blatant
displays of hate towards as a thing of the relative
past. The Pot boiled with the election of the
Clintons, then it simmered somewhat while Bush Jr.
and his gang were in the White House. With the
election of Obama, the lid has blown off - with the
Public direction of the GOP and their slavish link
up with the Tea Party, Public Hatred has taken off
like never before since the so-called Modern Civil
Rights struggle. Again, the fuel seems to come from
the GOP, although some Conservative Democrats mostly
in the South have skirted too close for comfort -
this is mainly propelled by the GOP and their allies
such as the Tea Party, Christian Nationalists and
Neo-Nazis. Of course not all Republicans subscribe
to this hateful nonsense, unfortunately, those who
are openly critical of the hate-mongers find
themselves either ostracized or ignored. Remembering
that my dad was a GOP Leader in Harlem in the
1950's, I can honestly agree "this ain't my father's
Republican Party. The big question is with this
"Clear and Present Danger" to the body politic and
more importantly - to the very future of this
country and democracy itself, what is the most
practical and moral course one should take?
When I see All of the GOP
Presidential Candidates do their level best to be
attractive to the parts of the country that are
Homophobic, Anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-Women's
Health, Anti-Science, Anti-Climate Change Study,
Anti-Working Class and on an on, I ask myself as a
moral human being who believes that as a citizen and
a veteran and as a descendant of people who
literally lost their lives so I could have the right
to vote - what choice do I have?
When I look
at Michelle Bachman with her "Other-Worldly Stare"
and listen to her explain "How the Founding Father's
fought to end slavery from the beginning of this
Republic" I ask myself do I wish to take the risk of
having a lunatic such as this come anywhere near the
Oval Office - let alone sit in the Chair?
In a nation
that is still dominated by the 2 Party's it would
seem that the GOP is the party of hateful
lunatics.
Let's talk
about the Gorilla in the room, that some folks don't
like to speak about. Will people who voted
Democratic, Independents on the Left, Progressives,
Registered Democrats, People of Color, suburban
whites. women, young people, working class whites -
will they give Barak Obama a second chance? Will I
give him a second chance? I am a registered
Democrat, African-American, a disabled combat
veteran, a native New Yorker from a Union family
with a college degree - Will I vote for Barak a
second time?
I have always
been proud of being an Independent thinker, and I
have never been one to follow any party or any
person that went against my conscience or values,
which probably explains my lack of material
recompense. In all honesty the Democratic party,
especially the upper echelon have made some
disastrous mistakes, many of our democratic office
holders have made some disastrous mistakes, and on
top of that they have given many in the base the
impression that either they were in the pockets of
lobbyists/financial industry or they lacked the
courage to fight.
I would
advise the Democratic party to spend more time
talking to the folks in their districts, because
people not active in day to day politics are very
disappointed. Democratic office holders must
understand - you're not expected to win every battle
- but you are expected to fight.
President
Obama has made some errors - some of which are
errors of judgment and some others in his official
circle have made for him. I love and respect the
President and his family. In 08, I volunteered to
get a group of veterans of all ethic backgrounds to
go to Washington to form a human ring around the
President, because the death threats before his
inauguration had risen to such a fever pitch
according to the Secret Service - I didn't fully
have the use of my legs at the time - but I was
still willing to go and be a shield for
President-elect Obama.
I would
still be willing to be a shield now. However, I
would not see myself as a person of integrity if I
became what I see in to many Churches in the Black
community, and that is an "Obama Worshiper".
That
mindset doesn't help the President, it doesn't help
to solve the issues that need to be worked on in
this country. It is delusional for the hero, and
brings no practical benefit to the community of the
worshipers, because any politician has to be held
accountable to the people that elected him.
As a
veteran and as an Urban American I believe the
President was wrong to continue to waste our lives
and money in wars that were started by George Bush
jr. The President is wrong to add America to
the schemes - not of the European people - but to
certain greedy and desperate men - who wish for
Europe to maintain some type of dominance over the
natural resources of the African continent by
removing Moamar Quadafi from the leadership of
Libya. I would also disagree with the President in
his negotiating tactics with the GOP in regards to
cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The
President needs to understand that "Populism" is not
necessarily a dirty word. He must realize that
America is a country that is rife with Class Warfare
- and that so far the Rich/Corporate Class is
winning.
There are
Americans who have lost their homes, can't afford
decent medical care, HIV Sufferers, hunger,
unemployed - desperate scared hungry people - right
here in America that look to him for help and for
hope. I would suggest that his model President
should have been Franklin Delano Roosevelt - not
Ronald Reagan. Hell, Reagan always admitted he took
lessons from Roosevelt - President Obama - you need
to do the same!
During my
military career, besides the Middle East and Europe
- I spent four years at the Pentagon and the White
House attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency,
with some interaction with CIA and NSA, as well as
working as a Congressional Staffer for the
Democratic Chair of the Iran-Contra Committee.
Before I rotated back to sea duty after my 4 years
in D.C, I had the opportunity to know some of these
so-called Conservatives in their "Embryonic"
state. People such as John Bolton, a former
ambassador to the United Nations, who is a prize
idiot, and if I am not mistaken, he is now a GOP
Presidential Candidate. Idiots seldom change.
I don't
wish to make excuses for the present administration,
however, I do understand what the President walked
into when he won that election. I daresay I might
have known a little better than he did at that time,
what type of nuthouse he was walking into. In all
fairness - Bush jr. literally took a meat axe to
this country for 8 years - to our health care, our
foreign policy, our military etc. he literally beat
the crap out of us, even to the point of desecrating
our Consititution, so it is amusing to hear the Tea
Party Right Wing and their ilk, Palin, Bachman and
the rest scream how Barak Obama destroyed America
and yet he hasn't been in office 3 hot years.
In the
America of 2012 we have 2 major party's - at this
point even if a 3rd party were to materialize - it
would only serve to drain votes from one of the 2
major party's. Unfortunately, this is not Europe -
as of yet we don't have the type of electoral system
that the rest of the worlds' democracies have. That
is indeed a noble project to work on - as well as
ending the huge amounts of money that are poisoning
our democracy, but I would say to my friends of the
Independent Left - the stakes for this election are
too high - one of the major party's no
longer functions as a political party but as a lynch
mob. The GOP has turned into a party that would
deny a woman the freedom of her own body, deny
medical care to an HIV positive patient, condemn a
person who needs a necessary transplant to death and
have us look upon Jim Crow and the antebellum South
with not only a sense of longing, but with a desire
to resurrect at least a part of it for our Prison
Industrial Complex for our poor white, black and
latino youth.
My vote does
matter - that is why in this election - I will vote
Democrat and for President Obama
Bob Gumbs
Concerned Forum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By John
Coleman
A number of United Methodist advocates
against racism view a new report citing a record
number of hate groups across the United States
as unsurprising evidence of continuing problems,
but also some progress, in the nation’s struggle
to end racial bigotry.
The
Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC), based in Montgomery, Ala., says there
are more suspected hate groups in the United
States now than ever in recorded history. The
SPLC annual survey revealed 926 active hate
groups in 2008, a 4 percent increase from the
year before and a 54 percent increase since
2000, when there were 602 such groups. That
spike comes as no surprise to nearly a dozen
United Methodist leaders queried by the
denomination’s General Commission on Religion
and Race (GCORR).
Most respondents see the disturbing trend as
refuting dubious notions that the problem of
racism has been solved in light of the 2008
election of the first African American U.S.
president, Barack Obama. Indeed, researchers at
SPLC concluded that Obama’s election likely
contributed to the rise in racist hate groups
and to a record number of assassination threats
against him as president.
“No question there’s been a backlash after
the election,” says Mark Potok, director of the
SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “But it still says
a lot for our country that we elected an
African-American president.”
“Officials reported that Obama had received
more threats than any other presidential
candidate
in memory,” according to Intelligence
Report, a quarterly SPLC magazine that
monitors hate-group activity, “and several white
supremacists were arrested for saying they would
assassinate him or for allegedly plotting to do
so.”
“Sadly, it does not surprise me,” wrote the
Rev. Andy Oren, a Milwaukee pastor who chairs
the Wisconsin Conference Commission on Religion
and Race. “While the election of President Obama
has been hailed by many (obviously a majority of
voters!), it has fueled the flames of racism
within many as well.”
The Rev. Taka Ishii, a Japanese-American
pastor of an interracial congregation in Golden
Hill, Conn., and a GCORR board member, sees a
reactionary fear of the unknown at work among
many who join hate groups. “We see this African
American president in the media every day, and
although a majority of us celebrate his
election, some are afraid of his presidential
power and believe something awful might happen
to them. It is fear of the unknown because he is
not white.”
Two other key factors seen as contributing to
a growing number of hate groups are the failing
U.S. economy and vocal opposition to the growing
presence of undocumented immigrants, most of
whom are Hispanic/Latino. The immigration
controversy has been an ongoing source of
hate-group recruitment, but the election outcome
and the worsening economy, including fear over
loss of jobs and homes, bolstered those numbers
in 2008 and no doubt, continue to do so.
SPLC found that the three largest racist hate
groups are the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis and
Skinheads. They also determined that five states
had the most hate groups:
- California: 84
- Texas: 66
- Florida: 56
- South Carolina: 45
- Georgia and New Jersey: 40 each
Alaska and Hawaii had no reported hate
groups. New Mexico, North Dakota and Maine had
only one.
