Yesterday thousands of protesters gathered in Washington to protest a lot of things, it seems, but mostly conservatives angry about the size of government and government spending, and so therefore also taxes. What was most striking to me was the range of offensive posters aimed at smearing President Obama. Not surprisingly the health care debate came up, too. I'm supportive of freedom of speech and think creative protests with clever posters and puppets and costumes are a vital part of democracy. Are there limits, then, to what is acceptable? Judging from yesterday, obviously not in the legal sense--people can say most anything they want, short of violent threats against the president. Examples abounded, from calling Obama the 'long-legged Mack Daddy' to various revivals of the 'Obama as Terrorist' theme we saw present in the long season of elections over the last couple years. Mostly those range from bad taste to the border of evil (which you might define here as the intentional subjugation of the good to further your own purposes). What really is evil, however, is the unbelievable strain of critique that has made its ways from the margins into the mainstream equating Obama with Hitler. It is so incredible as to strain the imagination how someone could equate the two with any credibility at all. As one commentator put it, this is more absurd than it is wrong. Anyone who has family connections to the Holocaust must be in disbelief to see that horrific memory used to describe a President who wishes to 1) end wars of aggression and revitalize diplomacy; 2) Seek vital public debate and transparency rather than create a secret police state; 3) Give the outcast a way in the door to dignity and a decent life rather than seeking to use violence to create a 'pure' society. So how did this come about? Here's a really helpful account tracing the emergence from Lyndon LaRouche's political action committee. The trick is to get people emotionally attached to this issue (Obama is Hitler) so that they don't actually pay attention to the real issues in the debate regarding how best to honor our nation's obligation to assure basic standards of care for all citizens, and to encourage the world by our efforts at a more perfect union. Unfortunately, the media too easily fall into being bated to cover the sensationalism rather than the substance. And we the people buy it.
Here, for the record, is one version of what the President ACTUALLY stands for, and it is a polar opposite of this evil campaign to smear him and bi-partisan efforts at reforming health care. President Obama believes we need people willing to engage in grass-roots education about the real issues, and who are willing to build a conversation about the reasons we cannot wait to create a system that provides access to health care for all, and about what such a system would look like. It is from the conclusion of his famous "More Perfect Union" speech:
There's one story in particular that I'd like to leave you with today, a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta. There's a young, 23-year-old woman, a white woman named Ashley Baia, who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She'd been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches -- because that was the cheapest way to eat. That's the mind of a 9 year old. She did this for a year until her mom got better. And so Ashley told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she had joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now, Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and different reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he doesn't bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley." "I'm here because of Ashley." Now, by itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 221 years since a band of patriots signed that document right here in Philadelphia, that is where perfection begins. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you.
Anon, and peace,
Chris
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