Racism Dead?

Religion and politics outrage me in a way I can hardly contain. Throw in a little racism, and I sort of lose my mind.

From the NY Times this morning.

Here's a few excerpts that disgusted me on more than a few levels.

“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch at Yellow Creek Fish and Steak.

“I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks...From where I’m from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive.”

Don Dollar, the administrative assistant at City Hall, said bitterly that anyone not upset with Mr. Obama’s victory should seek religious forgiveness.

“This is a community that’s supposed to be filled with a bunch of Christian folks,” he said. “If they’re not disappointed, they need to be at the altar.”

A quote from Dr Martin Luther King Junior (A Liberal, and a man of God if ever there was one) "Don't let anybody make you think that GOD chose America as his divine Messianic Force To BE a sort of Policeman of the whole world!"

In fact here's the man saying it himself.



There's a special, sick, demented, pathologically hubris-ridden brand of ambitious Fundamentalism that has taken control of the hearts and minds of certain 'Republicans'. I won't insult true conservatives by calling these fundamentalists Conservative. They're more like lunatics. These people are an insult to my country, which was founded on the idea of freedom, and my religion, which was founded on the idea of loving one's neighbor. These people continue to blaspheme against both with this hateful rhetoric.

I was really hopeful Wednesday morning, I still am. There's clearly a very serious paradigm shift going on in American culture. Thinking about the environment is not just for quirky people who don't bathe regularly (Although I myself happen to be a quirky person who doesn't bathe regularly). Using a bike as one's primary means of transportation is, perhaps looked upon as 'hard core' by mainstream automobile-addicted Americans, but it's hardly remarkable any more. Both a highly qualified woman and a highly qualified black man were serious contenders for the White House this year, and a black man won the Presidency of the United States a week ago today.

I'm still hopeful. But cold reality is setting in. Car companies still think they can dupe Americans into buying 'fuel efficient hybrid SUVs' that get 24 mpg, and Americans want to be duped because they're too weak minded to break out of the comfortable lifestyle they've purchased on the credit that has decimated our economy. Gas going "down" to $2.50 a gallon and temps below 75 degrees Fahrenheit have all those 'bike-commuters' I saw around Bozeman this last July back to driving their "efficient" Subarus again.

Seeing a competent, intelligent, black American, a God-fearing, family man, who made his own way in the world, and proudly bears his father's name though he barely knew him; who ascended to the Presidency without the help of his oil-rich daddy bailing him out of jail, bankruptcy, and academic mediocrity, that makes these red-neck idiots think they need to be fearful? A Patriot would puff out his chest, and gleam with pride that his country could produce such an individual. A Christian would love his political enemy, and pray that God grant this man the wisdom to save this country from itself, from problems that may not be salvageable.

I'm still hopeful, but clearly there's a long road ahead, regardless of how far we've come.