Romeo Area Tea Party

Posts Tagged ‘violence’

Today, President Obama

addressed the United Nations Assembly.

In President Obama’s speech, he praised the many regime changes that occurred over the past year, citing how change does not necessarily need to come by violence.  Specifically, the portion of text from his speech to the U.N. Assembly was…

“So this has been a remarkable year. The Qaddafi regime is over. Gbagbo, Ben Ali, Mubarak are no longer in power. Osama bin Laden is gone, and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him. Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way that they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Dictators are on notice.”

Here again, is the same text,

parsed with snippets of news reports of the day.

“So this has been a remarkable year. (The unemployment rate in the United States was last reported at 9.1)

The Qaddafi regime is over.(Libyan rebels on Monday said they had sent more fighters and weaponry to Tripoli…)

Gbagbo, (Toure says no U.N. troops were involved in Mr. Gbagbo’s capture which he says was carried out by fighters…)

Ben Ali, (The departure came as a dramatic climax to weeks of violent protests against Ben Ali’s rule in the north African nation…)

Mubarak (It was a moment they had anticipated throughout long days of relentless demonstrations — sometimes violent — that demanded Mubarak’s departure….)

are no longer in power (Rockets pound ghost city as allies say Gaddafi must go…)

Osama bin Laden is gone, (The president called the killing of bin Laden the “most significant achievement to date”…)

and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him.

Something is happening in our world. (The crowd I saw and spoke with were well informed, and deeply concerned Americans about the direction their country was headed. They were polite, courteous and above all–patriotic.)

The way things have been is not the way that they will be. (“We’ve come to take our government back,” Paul declared to a cheering throng.)

The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. (A federal jury found former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty of 17 of the 20 counts…)

Dictators are on notice. (President Barack Obama is rapidly advancing an executive dictatorship)

The only question that remains is,

“Who will write the history”?

Over the weekend I was appalled to hear so many voices in our nation’s media point the finger of blame at some amorphous, uncivil, inclined to violence group of people that, through their actions and words, especially their words, created the climate of violence, the environment of fear and hate, that finally came to a head in the murderous rampage in Tucson Arizona.

Let’s be clear, though the accusers in the mainstream media did not have the courage to be clear in many cases, they meant us. Pure and simple, without any supporting evidence, we were blamed for the murders of several fellow human beings, including a nine year old girl, a federal judge appointed by President George H. W. Bush, and several others. Among the wounded is a Democratic Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona’s 10th district. Our hearts go out to all of the slain and wounded, and their families. All of us feel horrible about what happened, but I find my sadness slightly tinged by frustration because, once again, I have to defend myself to a media on an eternal quest to find ‘right wing violence’.

The new fascination of the media seems to be civility. OK, let’s take them at their word and try a little civility. Strangely though, the most important aspect of civility is completely lost on the professional thinkers: Trust is never discussed. Instead they fasten on the consequences of a lack of trust, like harsh words and partisanship. But as most adults know, civility starts with trust. When we trust that our fellow man shares our values then we can disagree without hating or accusing or finger pointing.

After the professionals posit civility as the crux of the matter, their next move is the magic trick in which civil behavior disappears and in its place, ta-da, the accusation, without the slightest whiff of evidence, that the tea party is to blame because somehow we have created a climate of hate where vitriol, (how many times have you heard this word the last 72 hours?), spews  uncontrollably. Evidently, this sleight of hand is their contribution to civility.

The fellow they arrested for the crime by the way is a lunatic, through and through. This is now so obvious that the movement for born again civility is already starting to ebb. In its place is the movement for gun control. It’s deja vu all over again.

Here’s a couple of other ideas that we should start thinking about. The most closely similar situation to the Tucson murders is the Virginia Tech shooting a few years ago. In both situations we have a college student acting out in a way that adults ought to understand is very dangerous. The adults fail to or cannot take appropriate action. The problem progresses and ultimately ends when the psychosis explodes into violence. In both cases there were so many obvious signs that were not followed, not even a little bit. The deep professional thinkers never stop and ask what we need to do to manage these situations better. They have too many important political points to make, too many new rules and regulations to push on the non-offenders, to worry about the practical measures we can and should take to protect innocent people from madness and its manifestations.

It’s obvious to anyone who has spent one day in our group that the Tea Party understands exactly what we must do to move the country in the direction we want: Understand the issues and vote! We were successful in November and will be successful again in the next election. There’s no need for violence when you have the ballot box.