Is anyone else worried that our country may be about to implode? On CNN I just saw something I haven't seen since the sixties.
It was a video taken at a Sarah Palin rally in Johnstown Pennsylvania. The crowd was lined up waiting to get in. The cameraman panned down the line of mostly older white folks, and I saw signs saying Barack Hussein Osama. Socialist. Terrorist. People shouting "go back to Iraq and bomb some more babies." They were talking about Obama? One man had a stuffed monkey wearing an Obama hat and shirt. When asked "is this supposed to be Obama?" the man laughed like he was the most clever man alive. I have not seen such a display of racism since I used to see the marches in Selma and Montgomery. This video showed people and mannequins in KKK robes. There was the fire of pure hatred in these folks eyes. I got the feeling that if Barack had shown up right then, he might have been lynched.
What has caused all this hate to reappear? There is only one logical answer to this question. The only reason possible is that we are about to elect an African American to be President of the United States and these people are terrified. The centuries of apartheid culture that they have absorbed and adhered to, using Palin's favorite expression, "has reared it's ugly head." But what is so sad, is that are mainly afraid that Obama will be elected and things will be alright. Because this would mean that their deep seated hatred has no relevance.
But what scares me most is that one of these idiots will not wait to see if things work out. This moron will attend one of these rallies, get all jazzed up by Palin, and go out and kill a black person. Or perhaps even Barack.
Now I know some will say that I am over stating this problem. That I am only talking of a small segment of the population. But I would challenge you to see the same piece of film and come away with any other conclusion. One person in this crowd would say something like "he is a terrorist" and the whole bunch would cheer and try to top each other with their racism. And this was not an insignificant number of people. They filled an auditorium to see their hero, Sarah. And she once again egged them on.
What will happen if Obama is assassinated? I know the rage it would ignite in me. I can't imagine how the African American community would react, but I bet it would make the race riots of the sixties look small time. This time there would be many other ethnic groups rioting right along beside them, including many white folks. It might not be too crazy to think it could even bring on a revolution. Our population is fed up with being lied to, swindled, and cheated by those in power. There are so many different grievances among so many different groups that I fear it may only take a single spark to set it off. The American people are stressed out, and rage could be just around the corner.
One simply needs to look at our history to see how we react when properly stressed out. Our civil war was fought over race and economics. Other era's of unrest have been marked by a huge rise in crime. Look at the wild west, and the gangster era of the thirties. And our government's quest for an ever bigger and more destructive atomic bomb indirectly led to the Viet Nam protests, when our soldiers fired on our students at Kent State. And if you argue that we are far too civilized today for that kind of thing to happen, just watch this piece on CNN and you just might change your mind
I worry when I see how vicious our political discourse has become. When a candidate for the highest office in the land behaves as McCain and particularly Palin, what does that say about us? Because someone disagrees with them he must be unpatriotic. In so many words she continues to call Obama a terrorist. If this is the way our leaders behave, why should the general population be any different?
Yes, I am worried and nervous. I have seen this kind of hatred previously in my life. But this time I fear where it may lead.