We used to live in a land not too long ago where the right to dissent was fundamental to our way of life. When one could posit an opinion, even if that opinion were itself most reprehensible, and yet the right to do so was protected under our Constitution in the First Amendment, and defended in court assiduously. Such is no longer the case, that is, if your dissent is against the current president. This is what happened to a public school principal recently (see the story in the following link:
Because he decided that the president's speech should not be seen by his school, he was called to task by a local reverend, who descended with his congregation on a Board of Education meeting, and demanded his ouster.
The reverend claimed that it was racism that motivated the school superintendant not to air Obama's speech. No other reason was even remotely considered; it had to be racism, because Obama is half black (his mother was Caucasian), the school district is predominantly black, and the students are predominantly black. Oh did we mention that the school superintendant was white? Then of course, his motivation for not airing Obama's speech had to have been on the basis of race, nothing more right? WRONG.
Many of the schools across the nation did not air Obama's speech because of fear of allowing the use of a public school as a venue for politicizing the cirriculum during school hours for one side of a political debate, in this case; health care reform. We see that this was the case and motivation behind Obama's pitch, as is borne out in the following article at this link:
But, of oourse, this possibility did not enter the good reverend's mind, nor to the minds of his congregation, which appeared to be almost exclusively African American. I've always had issues with self-segregated churches; whether white or black. Almost without exception, such places almost always seem to hold to some unbalanced theology and points of view. We see it with the White Power, Aryan Nation types, and with many of the liberal black churches, such as the one Barak Obama belonged to for twenty years, in which Black Liberation Theology was taught, and some of the most extreme and incendiary rhetoric was propounded from its pulpit by it spiritual leader. We see the same segregation and extremism from such organizations as the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panthers. Again, the story cited above is but another example of the same, only this time, the reverend his flock are the culprits.
Racism? The only racism evident is the one expressed by the reverend and his followers. To bring race into the picture because the superintendant is Caucasian in this day and age in this country may still apply in certain placed,but it does not in this case.
Articles are being posted on the web in which it is being asked, "Is Obama out to create a civil war in this country?" The actor John Voight recently wrote one where he asks this very question:
I believe that for the first time America is being shown the raw face of black racism; a type of reverse racism held by many African Americans and predominantly black churches and organizations throughout this nation. It was heard before by the likes of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as many members of the Congressional Black Caucus, but we are now seeing it come straight from the White House, and it has empowered many of these reverends and community leaders to use their influence in fomenting this type of reverse racism. The incident with cited in this post is the latest example.
Other articles posted are questioning whether America is a united country anymore. Pat Buchanan has asked in recent article of his for World Net Daily, "Is America coming apart?"
The beginnings of this contention and the culture of political recrimination went into high gear with the Clinton Administration in the early 90s, and its greatest manifestation was the politics of personal invectives fine tuned by the Clintons in the 2000 presidential elections. The same politics seemed to have been put aside for a few months following the tragic events of 9/11, but was resumed with the Rockefeller Memo directing all Democrats to politicize the Iraq War and every issue brought before the congress. The same tactics were used by the Clintons against Barak Obama during the last presidential elections, but he turned the tables on them, and while claiming not to do the same, did just that against both Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
The same kind of politics is being used to wage a race war and an ideological war in this country, but not the types of war that involves violence, but the ones where it is more effective in using the institutions and laws of the state to foment that type of war against certain political points of view and against certain religious groups. The practice of intolerance in the guise of being tolerant, but intolerant against opinions which do not concur with their own, and using the strong arm of the government - be it local, state, or federal - to impose such conformity across the nation. The chickens indeed have come home to roost, only this time, they roosting from the master's house.
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