I Want My Country Back

One of my all-time favorite films is “To Kill a Mockingbird” (“TKM”). I first saw it at about age 13 or so on TV. It moved me so much I even read the book. I don’t know that I comprehended the racial message or the sexual and physical abuse message that much on a conscious level, but I am certain I got much of it on a subconscious level.

Last week during one of the town hall meetings on the health care reform debate debacle, a teary-eyed, red-headed, emotional woman who had the aura of a domestic violence survivor, almost stomping her feet in a childish way exclaimed into a microphone, “I want my country back!”

She reminded me of the character Mayella Violet Ewell who was sexually and physically assaulted by her father and, when it became obvious she was lying, she lashed out at the jury, screaming incoherently, “And if you fine fancy gentlemen ain’t gonna do nothin’ about it…with your fancy ass…don’t come to nothin’, Mr. Finch! Ugh!” before she ran into the arms of her abusive father.

I will never be able to look at the face of Brock Peters as Tom Robinson, the accused rapist, without seeing Barack Obama again. After all, they’re both black (although Obama’s half-white, remember?) and there are the similarities in their names—I think Brock Obama would be better than Barry, don’t you?

Despite the disappointment and frustration that progressives have with him or his war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as our Imperial Manager, Obama, in the context of health care reform debate/debacle, is being accused, tried and executed for crimes he did not commit.

The Radical Right accusing Obama of socialism, killing old people and Sarah Palin’s baby, comparing him to Hitler, and attempting to overthrow his presidency with fake birth certificates are nothing more than attempts to reassert the power structure that was taken away from them in the last two elections.

Trying and sentencing Tom Robinson for a crime committed by the abusive white father of the victim sitting on the witness stand was the way the corrupt power structure, the men from Old Sarum, maintained control. Accusing and trying Obama in the court of public opinion and convicting him of Nazism is nothing more than the white conservative power structure in America attempting to maintain control and maintain the status quo of a corrupt and abusive health care system that does their community more damage than good just like Maycomb’s racism held that community back.

In this analogy, I guess Rush Limbaugh would be the father character, Bob Ewell, since Limbaugh’s the father of the Republican Party, and benefited from his own health insurance with his OxyContin addiction which certainly was not on a single payer plan if Palm Beach County Florida law enforcement authorities noticed Limbaugh’s name in connection with a black market drug ring during an investigation back in 2003. But I digress.

The members of the Old Sarum mob who confront Atticus the night they try to break Tom Robinson out for a lynching would be Glenn Beck, Dick Armey and throw some of those damned Blue Dog Dems in there as well. They’re all idiots.

If Beck and Limbaugh had lived thousands of years ago, they would have been against the use of fire, they would have been against the creation of the wheel and they would have been against planting crops. These guys and the people they represent would rather eat raw meat just to maintain their status quo than create anything that would benefit those without in America.

But who is the Atticus Finch character in all this? Will it be Bill Clinton? Ooh, interesting characterization on at least the southern male angle—but no. I doubt Atticus Finch would have killed innocents in Iraq or had oral sex with an intern. And I am certain Atticus knew what the meaning of the word “is” is.

And perhaps more importantly, who is the Boo Radley character— who comes to save the day by killing the Bob Ewell character and every evil thing he was capable of from that day forward?

As we all know (and for those who don’t) Boo was a guy perceived as evil by the entire community who was misunderstood and came to save the day in the end. Who would be Boo?

John Cornyn? He has white hair and that albino look—even though Robert Duval is better looking. Bobby Jindal? No albino look, but hey, aren’t some of the broader points of this piece and “TKM” about race. The problem with Jindal is he’s too much of Barney Fife to be a Boo Radley. Se la vie.

Progressive, pro-health care reformers sitting quietly in the town hall meeting are like the blacks of Maycomb (the fictional town) forced to sit silently up in the second-floor gallery while the rabble rousers take up every occupiable space on the first floor of the courtroom.

This is an incredible similarity in this analysis between Mayella Ewell and Sarah Palin, however. The lies and victimization from the witness stand and not knowing how Tom Robinson supposedly raped her is like Palin lying during the campaign and now claiming Obama will kill her baby, proclaiming the media elites have treated her badly and not knowing anything about Supreme Court cases, etc and many other things she has shown her ignorance on. Mayella’s lashing out at the courtroom before feeling the witness stand into her father’s arms is uniquely similar to Palin lashing out at everyone before fleeing the governor’s office into First Dude’s arms. Even their shoes are almost the same.

The major differences between Obama and Tom Robinson in this analogy are that Obama is left handed and Tom Robinson’s left arm was damaged. What I hope is the other difference is that Obama doesn’t run away like Tom Robinson did.

Barack Obama. B-rock Peters.

Obama is no more a Nazi than Tom Robinson was a rapist. But the tactics of loud and constant accusation is how mob rule wins just as it did in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

I want my country too. But I can’t want it back because I don’t think I ever had it. Instead, it’s something I’ll just have to keep working toward.

Pig Fucking

In the movie “All the President’s Men”, the actor Robert Walden, as real-life Nixon White House political operative Donald Segretti, told Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein that the pranks they carried out to keep McGovern and Muskie from gaining traction in the election was called “rat fucking”.

Donald Segretti was role model for Lee Atwater, Bush 41’s campaign manager who carried out the Willie Horton ad which helped insure Bush 41’s victory over Dukakis, and served as architect as a strategist to the modern Republican Party. Karl Rove also learned from Segretti.

Massive lying, and twisting and exaggerating some small measure of truth is the backbone of American politics. Using these tactics to smear political opponents is a long-honored tradition. You don’t need me to tell you that. The Birthers, the Deathers, et al are evidence of those lessons learned.

Before America elected a black president, racism and race-based attacks had never been really seen beyond local elections on the political level—the most blatant example of which was Jesse Helms’ 1990 campaign against his former two-time African American opponent Harvey Gantt.

What Glenn Beck said yesterday that Obama is a racist who hates white people is pig fucking, which is an amped up, 21st century version of rat fucking.

What Limbaugh says everyday is also pig fucking. They have stirred racism among their audiences over the Gates issue, the Sotomayor nomination, the birth certificate issue and during the campaign claiming Obama was secretly a Muslim, etc..

On election night I watched MSNBC. When Keith Olbermann announced that Obama would be our next president, I became choked up that we actually had elected a black president.

As a 51 year old, I lived through the recent racial history of America. While many people, especially blacks, would quickly say that America would never elect a black president, I always believed we would. And I also believed it would happen in my lifetime. I just thought I would be older. Electing Obama made it seem that we had overcome some issues and had reached a milestone in the collective psychic pain in our country that gave a sign we were healing.

Now, I do not mean to suggest we overcame racism by voting for Obama. That assumes racism is something that can be healed so easily. It can’t. Almost nothing is that simplistic. As someone who quit drinking, quit smoking and quit drugs, all without twelve step programs, and regularly goes to therapy for mental maintenance, I believe there is some benefit to all the racism talk in the air.

Obama’s presidency is obviously about the immediate. But more importantly, his presidency is about those who are too young to vote. He is their childhood president. They are hearing all the racism of the Becks and Limbaughs and all Obama’s race-based detractors in a negative context and they are absorbing it and, I believe, they are being repulsed by it. We have a handsome, articulate young black president being called a racist by a fat, ugly, obnoxious white racist and an obnoxious, weepy, goofy racist. We need them to keep talking and making fools of themselves and forcing all of us to confront and deal with it to expand the long-overdue discussion. Time for therapy. And we need to have it not really for us, but for our children. They need to learn to confront their own and other’s racism and heal from it.

When quitting an addiction, one must talk about the emotional issues which started and fueled the addiction. We are addicted to power in America through our individual consumerism and our standard of living and our racial and cultural identities. The emotional issue of racism fuels our addiction to power on a national level, cultural level and, most importantly, a personal level because we do not want to lose what e have.

I am certain that many reading this will agree with the following statement that many times we all feel powerless and hopeless not just in global and national issues, but in our everyday lives.

I believe that espousing racism reveals a deep flaw in one’s character and emotional make-up. It reveals their fear of loss of personal power and hope.

But some wear racism as a badge of honor just as an alcoholic, wife-beating man wears drinking as a badge of honor. It reinforces his image of his own manhood and male mentality. However, I believe it is a fear and weakness that one should be embarrassed about and work to correct like spousal abuse and child abuse.

We have to talk about racism so our kids will talk about it and begin to solve it as an emotional issue as they grow into adulthood. Kennedy was my first president when my young consciousness was being formed, as did LBJ and Nixon later. The same is true with today’s kids and Obama.

Who remembers former Alabama Governor George Wallace’s words at his 1963 oath of office: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Little did Wallace know, the first black president who would desegregate the White House was then one year five months and ten days old.

Do we have what Wallace wanted—a segregated America? No. Wallace even later changed and apologized to civil rights leaders and, during his 1983-87 term as governor, appointed many blacks to state government jobs.

George Wallace is proof that a person’s racism can change.

Would Beck and Limbaugh also one day change? The difference between them and Wallace is they are commentators not politicians. The other difference is Wallace became a born-again Christian perhaps largely as a result of the paralysis he suffered due to the assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer in 1972.

I am not suggesting that for Beck or Limbaugh by any means.

Beck’s stupidity will make him irrelevant in time. Anyone remember Morton Downey Jr? Beck is so stupid that he completely contradicted himself within 75 seconds yesterday. First he said Obama is a racist who hated white people then when confronted about the reality of the whites in Obama’s administration, he said, “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people.”

Perhaps the guy is a complete idiot, or perhaps I don’t understand the subtle yet logical shift he meant, or perhaps he is just pig fucking.

But Beck, Limbaugh and the rest have not yet learned the hard lesson that Wallace did. They must think their tactic will eventually win over the race traitors who voted for Obama.

But it won’t work. As the photo above suggests, they are not fucking America, they are fucking themselves.

Just because I always believed America would elect a black president does not mean I ever thought it would be easy. Just because a rock climber is able to grab hold of the next rock above does not mean their arms do not strain to pull themselves up.

Perhaps one positive aspect to all of this is that Beck and Limbaugh will keep drawing that racist poison out of us where it will dry up and turn to dust in the hot light of day and blow away in the wind—in another generation maybe??