Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Blue Bannefs View
Page 23
Tea Party protesters cross line on Capitol Hill
Hopefully now that the debate
over health care reform is winding
down, some small semblance of re
spect and civility can return to the
American political process.
The chances of that happening
completely are slim, but the least we
can hope for is a dissolving of the
rjacist imagery and hurtful and inap
propriate words the Tea Party used in
the anti-government/anti-health care
protests last summer will cease to ex
ist.
While it is great that Americans
have the right to free speech, there
are times when the idea of free
speech gets distorted into something
it is not.
Last Saturday’s protests on Capi
tol Hill in Washington, D.C. on the
eve of the health care vote in the U.S.
House exemplify this distortion viv
idly.
So long as those anti-health care
protestors had the correct permits to
protest outside the Capitol, which
they seemingly did, they had every
right to be there and to let their voic
es be heard.
What was not part of the permit
they received from the city was the
right to spit on members of Congress,
yell racial epithets at them, call them
“faggots” or physically push them as
they passed by the protestors.
According to accounts from vari
ous news organizations, Capitol Hill
staffers and members of Congress,
all of those things happened.
On their own, those actions are de
spicable and unacceptable, but when
one takes into consideration that Re
publican members of the U.S. House
were actually there at the protests
makings speeches, it really reaches
another level of absurdity.
As if that were not. enough, not a
single Republican there (or not there)
has yet to come out and apologize or
denounce the behavior of their sup
porters.
The least they could do is make a
private apology to Rep. John Lewis,
D-Md., a civil rights pioneer and a
man who marched with Martin Lu
ther King Jr. Congressman Lewis
was spit upon and called the N-word
numerous times as he passed by the
Tea Party protestors on Saturday af
ternoon.
So far,-there is no word of a pri
vate apology.
The actions of the anti-health care
protestors were just plain unaccept
able.
The fact that in the year 2010
these kinds of things still happen just
goes to show how little many Ameri
cans have learned from the past and
how far we still have to go.
After Obama’s election, television
pundits across the land started to talk
about how America is now some sort
of post-racial, colorblind country and
just how incredible it is that a black
man could be elected president.
Unfortunately, that whole “post-
racial America” thing was a bunch
of baloney and was never really the
case.
Nothing has made this clearer than
the actions of the Tea Party protestors
over the past eight months or so.
Calling your president a socialist,
fascist, communist, anti-American,
Muslim-terrorist and Kenyan-Nazi is
really nothing of which to be proud.
Bringing guns to protests, yelling
racial and homosexual slurs at mem
bers of Congress, and then spitting
on and pushing our elected officials
is nothing to go around celebrating
about either.
In some parts of the media and in
certain political circles, these protes
tors continue to be touted as some
sort of “freedom-loving patriots.”
This needs to stop and they need
to be called what they really are: ig
norant, pathetic and embarrassing.
There is simply no place for these
kinds of actions and behaviors in a
civilized society.
Even in protests, a line needs to be
drawn, and in the case of these most'
recent anti-health care reform pro
tests, that line has been crossed and
this nation is worse off for it.
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