With a wink and a nod,

the Right Wing spreads hate

By Alafia Shexnayder

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in his address to the 64th General Assembly of the United Nations said, “I hope God will protect Obama from the bullets that killed Kennedy," he touched on an important point many have thought privately but few have spoken publicly.

Recently, a poll placed online by one of Facebook’s more than 300 million users made news when it asked the question, “Should Obama be killed?” The answers were “no”, “maybe”, “yes” and “yes if he cuts my healthcare.”

To their credit, Facebook immediately removed the “offensive” poll, and the U.S. Secret Service took the appropriate investigative steps and determined that a juvenile was responsible for its creation and there was no real intent to incite or cause harm to the president.

How exactly is it determined that there was actually no intent to incite or cause harm?

First of all, if someone said to me they wanted to kill me, I would immediately take it seriously, whether I believed they were capable of doing it or not. To me, making the statement, or, in this case, placing a poll online indicates that the thought did in fact occur in the person’s mind and therefore, a possibility exists that thought could become a reality.

Let’s not kid ourselves by acting like this is an isolated incident. It has been estimated that President Barack Obama receives over 30 threats a day, a 400 percent increase above that which was experienced by his predecessor George W. Bush’s. And, keep in mind, GWB (Guns, War and Bloodshed) left office with a final approval rating of 22 percent. Perhaps in his case, it should be referred to as a “disapproval” rating. My point is, even with the high level of dissatisfaction with GWB, he never received death threats on the level of what President Obama is currently experiencing. And keep in mind, if he is in danger, then his family is in danger.

It is one thing to disagree with Obama’s views on healthcare, abortion, the War in Afghanistan or race relations, it is another thing altogether to advocate his assassination. In fact, even to joke about such a thing demonstrates the existence of a reprobate mind capable of manifesting any number of bizarre realities.

I often wonder what people think about public officials. Anyone who lives their life in the public eye will experience some criticism from time to time, and certainly, with all of the social media outlets such as MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter providing instant access to the opinions of millions, not all that is written or posted will be positive.

However, to those who would insult, publicly attempt to ridicule, and (in some cases) outright state that President Obama should be harmed, and to those who would use their considerable influence in the media to shape and form the views of others, such as FOX, and many Right wing conservative commentators such as the bloviating hard-liner Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laurah Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, I would like to present the following questions:

Have you considered the fact that President Obama is also a husband and a father?

How would you feel if such insensitivity was displayed dealing with your father, husband or wife, friend or someone you love?

Have you considered the fact that Pres. Obama is loved by millions across the globe? What would be their thoughts, or more importantly, what would be their actions if President Obama were harmed?

Remember during the election, there were several highly insensitive comments made regarding Mr. Obama’s death. Ironically, those comments were dismissed in a very cavalier fashion, similar to the way the above-mentioned FaceBook poll was. Does the fact that a juvenile was responsible for the poll make it any less dangerous? Have you forgotten that there were reports of Obama’s image and likeness hanged in effigy (lynched) in several locations across the U.S.?

And what about the assassination plots that have been disrupted in which the officials say something to the effect that the president was really in no real harm or danger? Must we wait until something actually happens to say once and for all that the rhetoric has gone too far and that many have crossed the line? Or, is there perhaps something more sinister at work here?

Members of the Afrikaner Party…er…I mean the Republican Party have continued with a wink and a nod to aid and abet those using this harmful and divisive language aimed at Pres. Obama by providing the ideological basis for their arguments. By labeling him among other things, “socialist” and “communist” they hope to align him with many social reformers of the past such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated. This is racially coded language aimed at their conservative White brethren.

Whether it is “The Birther” movement, or sizeable segments of those die-hard racists among the 60-million who voted against Barack Obama in the November 2008 election, words do have a way of leading to actions.

Are they so filled with insecurity, anger and hate that they are completely oblivious to what is going on around them? Are they so completely detached from reality that they are unaware of the harmful effects of their vituperative comments? Or, is it possible that some may be filled with such malice that they actually desire to see harm come to President Obama?

By continuous use of slanderous insults to dehumanize President Obama and creating a toxic environment in which threats against him are now commonplace, if harm should come to him or any of the members of his family, the blood will be on their hands.

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