The "White" House Taken Literally is Dangerous & Un-American

I spent much of my early radio air time trying to "wake up" the citizenry of Anchorage. I was impatient, frustrated, chiding at times. On June 5^th, the show topic was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. On April 4, 1968, Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic Nomination for President. He had just landed in Indianapolis, Indiana to speak to a large gathering of African Americans. Kennedy was advised by police not to speak. His security could not be guaranteed, and there was no way to know how the crowd, in an area considered ghetto, would react. When he walked out onto the platform, he realized the upbeat audience didn't know of Martin Luther King's death. The moment he took the crowd around a corner with knowledge of a changed American Landscape, he stopped campaigning. He became a leader. Two months later Kennedy was shot and killed.

Listening to his speech, during an on air discussion, I realized Americans had good reason to be "unplugged." In a five year span, President John F. Kennedy, Malcom X, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy were all publicly executed. Their voices encouraged power of the people, demanded the best of Americans, and acknowledged years of racial injustice. A collective post traumatic stress disorder seized the political consciousness of Americans, the Vietnam War raged on, and a catatonic cloud descended.

Four years ago, I watched the Democratic National Convention, and for the first time saw Barack Obama. I called my mother and eight year old daughter in to watch him. My daughter said, "He sounds like a president" and walked back out to play. My mother said, "I hope no one shoots him." I know exactly where she was when JFK was killed. Anyone alive then can tell you how they found out. The political passion so many young people now feel, they remember. The anxiety they feel in this election is quietly talked about, but not very loudly.

The McCain camp have made a pivotal decision to attack on a personal level. Most of the pundits are talking about how xenophobic and racially charged statements affect votes. Sarah Palin continues to infer Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans. She emphasizes, "He's pallin' around with terrorists who would target their own country!" Barack Hussein Obama is repeated over and over at McCain rallies and even on local Anchorage right wing talk shows. They are trying to invoke a terrorist fear in voters. It is a dangerous and unfounded connection. Supporters in the crowd have responded with "Kill him" and "Terrorist." Those charges have been tacitly endorsed by both John McCain and Sarah Palin. During the debate last night, McCain was too much of a coward to repeat Palin's racially tinged attacks while on the same stage as Obama.

This is not only damaging the McCain-Palin campaign, it is eroding hard fought ground America has already covered. We have come a long way in terms of race, and yet we have only begun to move forward. We all lose when the Republican ticket sacrifices racial gains in an attempt to win the White House. This is not the change voters seek. This is fearful fodder for dangerous radicals.

Comments

[barkanomics]

McCain is giving us a dose of what his presidency might be like. A waking nightmare.

[Wonder11]

Let's all EXPOSE the bigots in their dark corners and TELL the World's Media to do so as well! This kind of cretin Monkeybusiness is UNACCEPTABLE and I pray that after Obama is elected McCain and Palin become not only parrias, but that their karma is both swift and deserving!

[twiggy2]

IT IS DANGEROUS ,IT IS IR-RESPONSIBLE, SO DO SOMETHING - YOU HAVE A PEN AND PAPER AND YOU HAVE A VOICE ! DO SOMETHING - BEFORE A GREAT LEADER - A PRESIDENT IS ONCE AGAIN CAUGHT UP IN THE HATRED OF IGNORANCE!
MCCAIN/PALIN ARE INCITING VIOLENCE -

[ohioan73]

Great post.

I feel that this is not the America of 40 years ago. People have shifted from trust in the establishment to outright cynicism and parody of the establishment--and despite the explosion of neo-cons who benefitted from Regan--the numbers of people who will be outraged has grown exponentially. I fear the reactions of today's people if the 60s were ever to try and repeat itself in and go the way of extinguishing "power to the people" leaders. This is the generation that communicates and organizes with the speed of light. This is the age of the info-highway. People will come together and revolt in a way that makes the politically turbulent 1960s look like a day at the park.

[Syco]

Well i for one am glad that he doesn't see America as they do. He would be blinded to the truth.

[PDinCA]

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant"
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind"

-Dickinson

[rmajh5]

More and more, I am hearing from people who find it difficult to overcome their deep fears over where our country is headed.

I cannot claim to know where our path is going. And admittedly, the financial markets here and all over look bleak. But we have overcome some rather large obstacles in the past, as Americans. I choose to remain upbeat and hopeful. It feels better.

In the meantime, much of what we are facing we have brought on ourselves as a society. The collective "we" have been stupid in so many of our choices. My best example? We left Afghanistan to go after Iraq and in so doing, helped make Iran a power with which to contend in the Middle East. After winning the war in Iraq within weeks, we decided to become an occupying force and despite claims by McCain that his "Surge worked," the negatives vastly outweigh the benefits as a result of our actions.

Now it is time to change the course of our bus and to place a new driver into the driver's seat. And then to hope that this new driver, call him Obama, will do a heckuva lot better than the one he will be replacing.

[customgreen]

Clearly the tide has turned. No amount of hate speech, race baiting, inuendo will change the outcome. Obama has beaten all expectations of the media pundits, the ones who supposedly "know" these things. So many thought he was a flash in the pan, just a good speechmaker. He has proven them both right and wrong. He IS a good speechmaker (isn't that what campaigning is all about) but he is no flash in the pan. Ask Hillary if he is a lightweight, ask Bill Orielly if he is to afraid to speak to those who do not agree with him, ask the hard working American if he doesn't get it. He and his remarkable team have been beating the odds all the way, and it drives the odds makers nuts.