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TURNER’S TWO CENTS: Conservatives Must Check Anti-Obama Threats
*Well, we knew this was going to happen.
Barack Obama faced an unprecedented number of death threats during the campaign (500 according to Good Morning America) and now that he is America’s first black President-elect, Obama is at greater risk for assassination than anyone else who has ever been voted into the White House. The Associated Press assessed the evil climate this way: “The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect.”
That same AP story went on to state that “the Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.”
Yeah, right. Tragically, we know better than that.
Racism is clearly the reason that President-elect Obama is confronted with this higher-than-ever level of danger. Check out this chilling fact (from that same AP article): on the day after Obama’s election -- when you and I were still celebrating, crying and hugging one another -- 2,000 other Americans signed up as new members on stormfront.org, one of the nation’s largest white supremacist web sites. Make no mistake, the racists are not about to pass gently into the night. They are enraged, terrified and are plotting to destroy Barack Obama and the spirit of racial harmony that swept him into the Oval Office.
But, no matter what these misguided, evil-minded people do or say we must not allow them to harm our President or disrupt the unity that is spreading across our great nation. White supremacy, race hatred, prejudice and bigotry represent America’s past, not its future. So don’t let their evil corrupt you by provoking you into misdirected expressions of anger.
White people are not the enemy. Racists are the enemy.
But there’s something else that needs to happen here. The conservative opinion leaders from who directly or indirectly fanned the flames of racial discontent during the campaign need to step up and denounce racism and this unheard of spike in assassination threats against President-elect Obama. Our nation needs to hear from John McCain, Sarah Palin, Republicans in the House and Senate and their allies in right wing talk radio and TV. They have unique influence over the demographic that includes the people who are now talking about killing the new President of the United States. If conservative leaders speak, if they blast these threats as indefensible, intolerable and un-American, then some of these would-be killers will listen and scurry back into the shadows. A few of them might wake up and seek constructive ways to air their grievances.
Meanwhile, I am hopeful that the Secret Service, FBI and local law enforcement agencies across the land will do everything in their power to keep President-elect Obama and his family safe. In doing so they are not simply protecting the President, they are protecting our collective aspiration for a greater America.
Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!
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