The Hate We Are Up Against…

The Face of True Evil

Yes, back to Arizona. The state of Sharron Angle, Jan Brewer, and John McCain, now has Steve Anderson. Anderson is the preacher at Faithful Word Baptist Church. Anderson, who claims to be a “christian” preacher has been receiving a great deal of media attention for his verbal attacks against President Obama, going so far as to say that he prays for Obama’s death. He has also been viciously attacking the LGBT community. Please take time to watch this video, as difficult and painful as it will be to do so. This man is pure evil and it is very difficult not to wish him ill will. I bring this to your attention because this is what we are up against–this is what we must look at and only respond with love and compassion and not retreat into the vile venomous discourse he is baiting. Click here to watch the video.

Thank you to my friend, Jenn Burleton, for calling my attention to this video.

Beck Benefits by Bellicose Bombast

The Face of an American Terrorist

The new Republican Chair of New Hampshire, Jack Kimball, said that his hero was Glenn Beck.  This gives me great worry and should also worry the rest of the country that Kimball’s hero is, by all accounts, a terrorist!  Yes, Beck and those promoting violence are nothing less than terrorists. I think we see concrete evidence of this in the tragedy that is Tucson–thank you Beck, Palin, Brewer, and Angle. I received a great comment from a fellow blogger yesterday and now I would like to share this link to his blog.  He does a great job of exposing Beck for the terrorist he is. So how do we stop these American Terrorist?  Well, we take their voice away.  We stop watching Fox News. We stop listening to functioning illiterates like Sarah Palin. We stop listening to the lies and the anti-woman, anti-gay, and anti-poor rhetoric.  This Klan of white angry folk breed fear and earn a great fortune from instilling fear.  Here is a link to the definition of terrorist: click here.

Remembering Bayard Rustin on MLK Holiday…

Unknown Hero!

Not many people know that it was Bayard Rustin, close confidante to Dr. King, that worked with King on techniques for nonviolent resistance.  Yes, that’s right NONVIOLENT–what a world away we are now, with the likes of good old whitey Palin and Angle promoting violence.  Rustin was an openly gay black man working tirelessly for civil rights.  I cannot fully articulate my admiration for this man.  Of course at the time he was working with Dr. King, it was illegal just to be homosexual.  Some believe that Rustin’s effectiveness was compromised because he was openly gay.  Unfortunately, Rustin started to worry that his integral part in the civil rights movement would undermine the efficacy of the movement and thus offered to step aside.  King supported Rustin’s move to step aside.  As much as I respect and honor Dr. King, I wish he would have shown more support for Rustin.  Here is a great video clip that credits Rustin for the March on Washington in 1963.  To learn more about Bayard Rustin, I encourage you to read a great biography called, lost prophet:the life and times of Bayard Rustin.  There is also a movie about his life called: Brother Outsider.

Gun Crazy Nation, Part II

Thank you, Lex for sharing the link to this great article about gun control.  In an earlier post, I addressed the craziness of our gun obsessed culture. There has been a great deal of ignorance spewing from angry pro-gun voices; spreading a great deal of misinformation.  I also get tired of people like Sharron Angle talking about the Second Amendment to the Constitution–more ignorance and misinformation.  Lex pointed me to this fantastic blog, called Please Cut the Crap!  Here is a particularly good paragraph:

There is NOTHING in the Constitution that forbids the government from regulating firearms. NOTHING. And anyone who cites the Second Amendment as such is purely ignorant. It protects an individual’s right to bear arms in the context of militia service, to fight a common enemy. But the Constitution also gives the government the power to regulate the militia, which means it can regulate guns. That concept doesn’t come out of my ass; it comes from a case settled by a conservative Supreme Court in the 1930s, captioned US v Miller. No, the government cannot ban guns altogether. But it can regulate them.  Actually, let me re-state that; they are REQUIRED to regulate them. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution requires them to regulate the militia, and the Interstate Commerce Clause requires them to regulate interstate and international commerce. And I think we can all agree that guns are interstate and international commerce.

I strongly encourage you to click here to read the full article on the blog.  It is factual and dose not endure nonsense or ignorance.

...and you think we don't need gun control?

Sarah Palin’s Street Gang:Promoting A Culture of Violence

Jessica Valenti’s article, The Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords highlights the “Man-up” culture in US politics: In a country that sees violent masculinity as the ideal, it’s no wonder this rhetoric resonates, does a remarkable job of looking at Tea Party women that have promoted a culture of violence.  Sheriff Dupnik acknowledged this disgrace in his press conference.

Valenti looks at several key culprits, including Sharron Angle, who suggested that if Congress “keeps going the way it is”, people would turn toward “second amendment remedies”. (The second amendment of the US constitution outlines the right of Americans to bear arms.) And in an interview with a local Nevada paper, Angle said: “The nation is arming … If we don’t win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?”

I love how Valenti articulates how these right wing women buy into a masculine model of violence for political expediency: “Stephen Ducat, author of The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity, says that masculine and violent language is often used in elections and campaigns – especially by men on the right – because of a fear of being perceived as feminine. In a sexist society, what could be worse than being called a girl? So it doesn’t seem unlikely that conservative female politicians feel the need to peddle their ideas in gendered and violent language in order to fit in with the masculinised right.”  Republican Christine O’Donnell said that her opponent was “unmanly”; Angle told Harry Reid to “man up”; and Palin praised Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer as having “the cojones that our president does not have” to enforce immigration laws–all embarrassing examples of the promotion of violence.  Did these women not believe there words would have consequences?  I hope you will take the time to read the article in full.