Comments for John Lewis, Invoking George Wallace, Says McCain and Palin 'Playing With Fire' »
Posted By Neophile 1 year, 1 month ago in Political News"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today for Politico's Arena forum. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."
"George Wallace never threw a bomb," Lewis noted. "He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."
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Progressive1 year, 1 month ago
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Great minds think alike:
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http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/11/civil-ri... -
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cowboygrandpa1 year, 1 month ago
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Well, McCain doesn't like what John Lewis said.
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Does McCain ever stop to think that maybe Obama doesn't like the innuendos and outright lies being told about him. By the right wing nut cases on the Republican crusade to discredit Obama as being a Christian American.
How many times have we heard that Obama is a Muslim ????? Which is brought out by those announce him as Barrack Hussein Obama.
Come on !!!!! John you knew this and played into it until it being shown as counter productive lies. To place doubt and fear into the minds of the spineless and weak minded who jump at the mere mention of Muslims.
It is all about fear and controlling the scared populace with thought that Obama would not keep this country safe form Muslim attacks.
Well It back fired Johnny Boy, just like bringing in Sarah Palin.
You want to have Obama say it isn't so !!!! Well say it isn't so to all those in your party who continue to bash Obama as a non Christian, with the inferrance of him being a Muslim.
I'll tell you what, I think Obama is more in line with Christian teachings than Sarah Palin or John McCain. -
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Eagle_Eye1 year, 1 month ago
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They are playing with fire all right. Palin with all her acussations agains Obama palling around with terrorists, et.all. has really set the mentally ill on fire!!!
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Did anyone see the old woman with the wonderfully coifed hair tell McCain she was afraid of Obama because he was a terrorist and McCain had to tell her Obama was a nice man and he wouldn't be afraid to have him as president? Well "My Friends" that is the mentality of who they are pandering and to and who many of these idiotic right wing posters are here on Propeller........scary isn't it. (wink, wink) -
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Harbeas1 year, 1 month ago
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You obviously are a democrat. I don't care whether it is McCain or Obama they both are skirting the major issues here. I don't care who went to bed with who I want to know what you are going to do about the critical issues facing our country. I am not interested in generalities either.
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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"Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.">>>>
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Can't agree. Those seeds were sown in 2000, when the new discourse of ugly was introduced by CONS. They're perpetuating the division it caused, of course. But they didn't start it. And I'll probably never again have respect for a person who backs the republican party. Too much of that ugly has been accepted by conservatives, who showed their acceptance by their vote in 2004.-
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sinophil491 year, 1 month ago
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I agree. I would even go back further to Nixon and Spiro Agnew.
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Remember "Love it or leave it." "nattering nabobs of negativism."
This grand tradition was carried on by Newt Gingrich and his take-no-prisoner mentality.
The pedigree bred true in Delay, Hastert, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and all the bellicose GOP followers who threw insults around like "Traitor", "coward", "cut and run", "appeasing the enemy", "aiding and abetting the terrorists."
Even the simple word "Muslim" somehow became synonymous with "terrorist."
It seems the modus operandi of the Republicans is to encourage division, sow fear and paranoia, and insult anyone who disagrees with them.
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Searchbeam1 year, 1 month ago
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When Susan Eisenhower wrote a scathing article about the current state of the Republican Party, and why she was leaving the party, it was like watching the funeral procession of the Republican Party.
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This party, driven into the filthy ditch of hatred and lies by the likes of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, is now only a ghost of itself. There is nothing noble, purposeful and decent left there. It is all a collection of crooks and snake oil salesmen, with no redeeming value whatsoever.
If Sarah Palin is the face of the new Republican party, all the decent, caring people still clutching to the party loyalty better roll up their tent and start the long march into the darkness of insignificance!
Peace and Blessings!-
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awongscreen1 year, 1 month ago
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Cannot say it better. The scary part is if decent people will leave the party after witnessing these ugly dark side of the Republican party, then why there are still over 30% of people still favours JM in the poll. Is it more scary to know 30% of the population are either stupid, or they concur to these evil practices.
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ProudBlueTexan1 year, 1 month ago
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perfect example: the woman on All Things Considered yesterday who, when asked if she was voting for Obama said, "No." Asked why, she hesitated, then said ....."uh, I'd rather not say."
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THERE'S your gop!!! THERE'S your 'conservative' American!-
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive
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ProudBlueTexan1 year, 1 month ago
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"He added: "I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”
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Reminds me of another truism:
"When Fascism comes to America it will be called anti-Fascism." - Attributed to Huey Long, governor of Louisiana-
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alakazam1 year, 1 month ago
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"Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, with an emphasis on liberty, rule of law, popular sovereignty and the civic virtue practiced by citizens. Republicanism always stands in opposition to any form of dictatorship or tyranny in the political realm. More broadly, it refers to a political system that protects liberty, especially by incorporating a rule of law that cannot be arbitrarily ignored by the government."
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How much following of that ideal do you see in the Republican party these days?
This current crop of so-called republican leaders are just exactly what you say Blue Texan...Fascists.
Maybe they should be called Anti-Republicans?
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ETproductions1 year, 1 month ago
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It is terribly sad to see a man who was once so honorable stoop to such lows as to claim that Obama "Pals around with terrorists". That's an outright lie and he knows it. To claim that Obama voted for tax increases 94 times. He knows those were all procedural votes on funding. By the same measure, McCain has "voted for tax increases" more than 400 times. Another outright lie. And the lies and inuendo just go on and on.
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By this smear campaign McCain has proved he has no further place in American politics. The partisan divide in America has reached a dangerous point.
After the drubbing it's going to take in this election cycle, the Republican party needs to step back and reinvent itself. The don't tax just spend plan of Reganomics has been thoroughly discredited with the national debt now pushing toward $11 trillion.-
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alakazam1 year, 1 month ago
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I voted hardcore Republican for over 20 years.
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You know what I got out of it...a feeling of intense betrayal.
They have come to stand against almost everything that was good in America.
It's no longer the GOP we knew ET...I have put the party of old to rest in my mind. -
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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ET,
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McCain did not say that Obama pals around with terrorists. Palin said it. Palin meant it. It is true. And you cannot prove otherwise. When Bill Ayers stated publicly his only regret is he didn't set off more bombs, Obama was 40 and shared CAC responsibilities with Ayers.
Ah, you say. But Palin used the plural, not the singular. Ever heard of Obinda of Kenya? Oh sorry...just kidding. You're an MSM victim: utterly clueless, kept that way, and happy to be kept that way.
What a tragedy that Palin spoke the truth, and you cannot prove otherwise. Maybe you should have joined the hockey team as a kid. Then you could get on the ice with Palin. You didn't. You can't.-
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ETproductions1 year ago
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A -- Your premise is a lie because Obama does not "pal around" with William Ayers. They both served on the board of the Annenberg Foundation founded by arch conservative Walter H. Annenberg.
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B -- Your premise is a lie because William Ayers today is a College professor and a respected and honorable member of his community. His anti-war protests were 40 years ago when Obama was 8 years old.
McCain presumably runs his campaign and has control over what his operatives say. If he isn't even able to control his VP running mate, how on earth does he expect to control the USA with 300 million people? Lies are lies. Palin's lying about the terrorist connection just as surely as she lied about the bridge to nowhere. And employing a liar to spread untruths for you makes you party to the lies.
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Eagle_Eye1 year, 1 month ago
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"My Friends", we have 100 days left of the Bush administration, we have 3 weeks left until election, I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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(wink)
I have said a prayer of 6 years now asking God to reveal Satan in our government and corporate world, and it has been answered. I neglected to add to my prayer with out hurting all the people. I will now have to pray for God to help all of Middle American and lower Americans who have watched savings go up in smoke the past few months.
Please God help us in our time of need, we did wrong by blindly trusting those who have betrayed us. Help us through this time of need. -
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mmrhe1 year, 1 month ago
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I will give McCain some credit. He seems genuinely disturbed by the level of hostility out there.
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On the other hand, it's poetic justice for the man who sold his soul to get the nomination.
He must deeply regret doing what he did in the name of the ignorant cellar dwellers spewing their ignorant hate! -
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HateKoolAid1 year, 1 month ago
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So why didn't Palin show some political savvy and drop that topic and start a new one on why she thinks Obama's economic ideas won't work in her opinion and give us her ideas. You know. get off the mud slinging and get on with the issues.
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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Anyone's economic "ideas" work. The problem is not and never has been ideas on the chalkboard. The problem is to observe Obama in action, and discern what kind of economic policies he'd enact as president.
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Obama supported mortgages for people who could not afford them. He litigated against banks who denied loans to blacks who could not afford mortgages. Obama profited from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And after all his efforts on behalf of "main street," after all his accusations about corrupt finance executives, after the trillions lost in the financial markets so that minorities could occupy a home and Dodd could have a favorable mortgage, who does Obama want the solution to focus on? Yep...main street once again.
Obama himself said, "The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree."
It's the only truth Obama has stated as a candidate.
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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I would say that the present bitterness comes from a generalized failure of our democracy to adapt to the modern world. Many people are afraid and, with our poor education system, become easy prey for religious and political hucksters. We have BIG issues to sort out.
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Anti-democratic nature of US capitalism is being exposed
Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies. It was hated by the US neoliberals - the very people who created the banking crisis.
...The immediate origins of the current meltdown lie in the collapse of the housing bubble supervised by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, which sustained the struggling economy through the Bush years by debt-based consumer spending along with borrowing from abroad. But the roots are deeper. In part they lie in the triumph of financial liberalisation in the past 30 years - that is, freeing the markets as much as possible from government regulation.
...A study by international economists Winfried Ruigrok and Rob van Tulder 15 years ago found that at least 20 companies in the Fortune 100 would not have survived if they had not been saved by their respective governments, and that many of the rest gained substantially by demanding that governments "socialise their losses," as in today's taxpayer-financed bailout. Such government intervention "has been the rule rather than the exception over the past two centuries", they conclude.
... The financial market "underprices risk" and is "systematically inefficient", as economists John Eatwell and Lance Taylor wrote a decade ago, warning of the extreme dangers of financial liberalisation and reviewing the substantial costs already incurred - and proposing solutions, which have been ignored. One factor is failure to calculate the costs to those who do not participate in transactions. These "externalities" can be huge. Ignoring systemic risk leads to more risk-taking than would take place in an efficient economy, even by the narrowest measures.
In a functioning democratic society, a political campaign would address such fundamental issues, looking into root causes and cures, and proposing the means by which people suffering the consequences can take effective control.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/12/anti-dem... -
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lewby54-591 year, 1 month ago
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It is pitiful how Palin attacks Obama's past associations.
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This comes from the Rhett Butler Palin family,who while a members of the Alaska Indepenedence party, adocated for the secession of Alaska. This isn't 1860 South Carolina. This is 2008. This election is about Judgement. If we want poor judgement, just keep Bush in office. Poor judgement in the Keating 5, Poor judgement in that watergate burglar G Gordon Liddy. Obviously McCain is of the ilk of government within the government. The very thing JFK warned about! McCain applauds Liddy. Calls this ex-con friend, after crapping on the constitution. Just like the Nazi's in ww2, I vas just following orders! Liddy, an ardent Hitler admirer calls McCain friend and likewise.Poor judgement in destroying 3 naval aircraft. Poor Judgment in choosing to primp out Hockey-mom Sarah Palin, because she's an attractive distraction that puts a pretty face on old poisonous ideas.
Poor judgement because he appears to be subconciously, looking for and rousing the right, wingnut, to commit some unspeakable act against Obama. He is disgustingly shamefull in his blatent grab for power. It should be no surprise this friendship with Liddy. If Palin was smart she would distance herself from this maniacal dinosaur, for her own political future.
McCain and Bush are so close in policy, they are one and the same. Hence, McCain/Bush. Which incidentally is a perfect anagram for Mabus. Ask Nostradamus.
http://www.squidoo.com/McCain_and_Gordon_Liddy -
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mdarmstrong1 year, 1 month ago
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I remember when I saw members of the carpenters union in Massachusetts punch women who were holding Bush signs in the face, give them bloody noses and rip up their signs. It was pretty violent and not a word in the liberal Boston Globe. So, I don't expect to hear anything positive about McCain's rallies from the MSM and their left wing allies. They don't like to be questioned. When they are, be it by McCain, Christians, Libertarians or any other person or group they don't like, they just demonize them, call them stupid or angry. This is nothing new.
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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Really. Watch them attack Palin for bringing up Obama's connection to terrorism, yet refuse to discuss what it was that makes Ayerss so repugnant to normal Americans.
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So far I've not heard the first liberal express gratitude to the investigators in Alaska who finally mamaged to get liberals' attention off Bristol's tummy. Bristol was fair game. The mockery of families with downs syndrome children was fair game. THEIR filth was fair game. But the historical and ongoing relationships of Obama with murderers, terrorists, racists, and bigots is strangely off the table.
Oh. But he's going to save our economy. Despite being a central actor in the very damn thing that ails it...mortgages for those who cannot afford them.
McCain deserves to lose this election--he's certainly not fighting to win it. It seems the Democrats want him to win more than Republicans. They and their pathetic candidate are the only thing keeping him afloat, as if the naval aviator ditched at sea and is clinging to a dead, rotting piece of flotsam to keep himself above water. -
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ind061 year, 1 month ago
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Screaming out "Kill him!" is beyond stupid and angry, it's murderous, and I should hope the media would report it.
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Would you rather they remained silent?
Or are they just twisting Mr. "Kill him!"'s words as I've heard the McCain campaign claims? You know, "Kill him!" actually means the guy's angry at Washington , apparently so angry he completely forgot that he should have been saying Kill THEM and instead shouted Kill HIM.
Yeah, those darn media people, they should just shut their biased pie holes! Who wants to hear about political rallies where Senator McCain's supporters are screaming for Senator Obama's death? We can hear about that AFTER Obama's been assassinated when those biased media libs can explain how they knew about it, they just didn't think it was important enough to mention.
Pffft.-
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mdarmstrong1 year, 1 month ago
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Obama supporters were at the McCain rallies. Why? To taunt the McCain supporters and stoke the fires no doubt.
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What about the lefties that have been making similar comments about Bush the past 8 years, even to go to the extreme of creating a movie about it.-
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ind061 year, 1 month ago
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Death of a President was a Canadian movie, not an American liberal movie, and it was widely reported on in the biased liberal media that you claim never reports such things. So much so that it justifiably never received a theatrical release.
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I fail to see how saying Obama is a Muslim at a McCain rally is "taunting the McCain supporters" since all those stalwart McCain supporters booed Senator McCain for saying Obama was not a moslem. Keep on spinning.
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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As with many Americans who grew up during the 60s, I view John Lewis as an authentic American hero. Unfortunately, as a politician, Mr. Lewis has not said or done anything to deserve my respect and has done much to register disrespect.
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Sad, but to be expected from a man who today comes across as the very kind of Democrat he protested at Pettis Bridge. And yes, it was against racist Democrats Lewis protested. -
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NancyCronk1 year, 1 month ago
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Racism as Disease
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I can't help but think the enormous amounts of racism that is bubbling up through the McCain/Palin campaign is similar to the pus in a very bad skin wound. If a wound is badly infected but closed, it becomes inflamed and painful below the surface.
This Presidential campaign has opened the wound for the world to see, and the ugly infection is now visible. We need to act quickly to fight it from becoming worse. We need to restore health.
What do you do to a wound that is badly infected? First, you DON"T make it worse. You immediately get to work cleaning it, cleaning it, and cleaning it some more (read: educate, educate, educate some more). You do not bandage it (cover it up) before dealing with it. You do not ignore it, or hope someone else will tackle it for you. You do not allow dirt or germs (rumors and lies) to get into it to further contaminate it. You expose it, watch it, keep it clean, watch it, and allow the air (exposure) to dry it and heal it completely. Later, a scar will serve as a reminder of what was battled, and what was learned.
My friends (to reclaim a phrase), it is good the wound is open. It has been there all along, getting worse every day. We must show our strength and fight hard to expose it, clean it, drain it, treat it, and heal it. We must educate, educate, educate every possible waking moment we have. Fight the smears with truth and reason. Stand together and assert ourselves as those who can heal the disease, and those who will NOT allow it to get worse. Lead by example. Take charge, and do not allow anyone to define us before we define ourselves. We need to enlist intelligent, reasonable friends to stand with us and do the same, so that we can heal this infection. We are fighting for our lives, and for our children.
We also need to promote good health (lead by example!) so that we will not have to fight it again.
I believe we are living history in the making. Just as Martin Luther King Jr., and Ghandi before him, refused to allow anyone to push them into violence, Barack Obama is refusing to allow the McCain/Palin ugliness to draw him into a spiral of accusations of racism and more racism. He is too smart to get sucked into a racial war. We need to respond as he has - with facts, reason, persistence, dilligence and sanity. We need to respond by sharing our standards of decency, ethics, and vision. We must not stoop to the attacks, but to rise above them and show others how to do the same.
We must do it NOW. We must assert ourselves swiftly and thoughtfully.
YES WE CAN.
Thank-you, Nancy Cronk -
RIChrisComment removed: Retracted by user
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