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Tea partiers proved that I was right
* By Leonard Pitts Jr. Miami Herald *
So it turns out that, contrary to what I argued in this space a few weeks back, racism is not “a major component” of the so-called tea party movement. I am informed of this by dozens of tea party activists indignant and insulted that I would even suggest such a thing.
In other news tea party protesters called John Lewis a “nigger” the other day in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.
For the record, Lewis wasn’t their only target.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver was spat upon.
Rep. Barney Frank, who is gay, was called “faggot.”
But it is Lewis’ involvement that gives the Saturday incident its bittersweet resonance. The 70-year-old representative from Georgia is, after all, among the last living icons of the Civil Rights Movement. Or, as Lewis himself put it, “I’ve faced this before.”
Indeed. He faced it in Nashville in 1960 when he was locked inside a whites-only fast-food restaurant and gassed by a fumigation machine for ordering a hamburger.
He faced it in Birmingham in 1961 when a group of Freedom Riders was attacked and he was knocked unconscious for riding a Greyhound bus.
Most famously, he faced it on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma 45 years ago this month when his skull was fractured by Alabama state troopers who charged a group of demonstrators seeking their right to vote.
In the very arc of his life, Lewis provides a yardstick for measuring American progress. The fact that he rose from that bridge to become a member of Congress says something about this country. But the fact that people demonstrating against healthcare reform chose to chant at him, “Kill the bill, nigger!” well, that says something, too.
Read more at Miami Herald
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=23030
Posted by Bob Higgins on Mar 24 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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embarassing “fringe” elements are common to every “movement”. damn shame.
You are not as smart as you think you are.
First of all, their are 2 Tea Parties.
The REAL Ron Paul Tea Party movement of 2007.
And the FAKE Neocon Fox News Version.
The Real Tea Party has a real platform:
End the Wars
Audit the Fed
End government corruption
Restore the Constitution
Reduce big government
And then there is the FAKE Tea Party platform:
We are bitter Neocons.
So your analysis is short sighted at best.
Secondly, I have found NO PROOF that your allegations are true.
How do you know it wasn’t a plant designed to discredit the Tea Parties?
We all know they do things like that.
Nobody has been caught, and there is no evidence.
So to blame an entire organization for an unsubstantiated allegation is quite frankly, pathetic.
If you want to see racism, maybe you should look at what Obamas SEIU thugs said and did when they assaulted that black guy and called him the N-word at the town hall meetings.
I am sickened by your lack of knowledge and broad-stroked analysis.
Thank you Patriot, for calling out the “Rahm Emmanuel Tea-Fakes”
Do you want to see racism?
This is RACISM.
godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1020629/pg1
Where is your brilliant analysis one this?
*crickets*
Obama doesn’t have SEIU thugs anymore than the tea party are all racists. But you have to wonder about a tea party that charges hundred of dollars for “tea”.
Hey Higgins.
Why do you support a blatant fascist?