Soon after the massacre in Tucson that left six dead and 12 wounded, among them Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., a public discussion began as to whether incendiary, provocative speech incites violence.
The horrendous assault at the Tucson public assembly has receded to the back pages. Daniel Hernandez, the student intern who rendered her aid, possibly saving her life, became a national hero. Giffords is recovering, as are other wounded victims.
At the time of the shooting, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said he was not convinced that Jared Lee Loughner acted alone.
But the accessory to the crime seems to have been the same ugly elements that rear their heads like cobras coming from inside a woven basket when they are lured by a snake charmer's flute.
Rep. Paul Broun, a doctor and conservative third-term congressman from Athens, Ga., who had said after Obama's election in 2008 that he feared the president would impose a Marxist dictatorship and establish a Gestapo-like security force, has confirmed that at an Oglethorpe County town hall event on Tuesday, Feb. 22, a constituent asked, "Who's going to shoot Obama?"
Broun acknowledged he didn't immediately condemn the man, alleging he was stunned by the question, and his intention was to avoid dignifying it with a response. His office has refused to say whether it had audio or video footage of what happened.
Does Broun's response prove the case about inside provocateurs? The snake charmers who incite others hardly ever face up to the consequences of their acts. It took him from Tuesday until Friday to issue a statement calling the incident "abhorrent." After the exchange was reported by the Athens Banner-Herald, his "I-deeply-regret-this-incident" statement didn't criticize the man who asked the question but said he had told the crowd he understood its frustration with Obama.
Broun's office later said the congressman had alerted the Secret Service, which questioned the elderly man who made the comment. The Secret Service now says it is "a closed matter."
But is it? Does Broun resemble a flutist heading for cover. The over-the-top rhetoric and behavior is made out to seem like political theater and bottom-fishing for votes. Or is it something else?
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that for the second consecutive year, radical-right groups exploded in 2010. The Law Center says the groups are driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government's handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various non-white groups. The anger focuses on President Barack Obama, who is seen as embodying everything they don't like.
Currently. there are three main carriers of hate: hate mongers, nativists and antigovernment zealots. They have increased 22 percent, from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010. That's after a 40 percent increase from 2008 to 2009.
According to the analysis, after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed last April the harshest anti-immigrant law since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a tsunami of similar proposals spread across the country. Instead of assuaging the fever with its legislative success, the far right took the appeasement as comfort that radical pursuits are correct. The Republicans' recapture of the U.S. House fortified its beliefs, energizing the radical right through mainstream political-right strengthening.
In 11 days in January, a neo-Nazi was apprehended heading for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades, police averted a terrorist bomb attack with sophisticated anti-personnel weapons on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Spokane, Wash., and a man with a long history of antigovernment activities was arrested and charged with possessing explosives with unlawful intent outside a packed mosque in Dearborn, Mich.
All that happened in the same month as the Tucson massacre.
Now tell me hate speech and acts haven't gone viral.
Dale Whiting posted at 6:56 pm on Fri, Mar 4, 2011.
Yes, Jose
All good points. And we have the audacity to think of ourselves as being a Christian Nation. Muslims can be and often do behave in a more Christ like way that so far too many of us do. Perhaps we Christians need to pray five times each day to ask for forgiveness and to help us remember just what we think we are!
Rich posted at 7:16 pm on Fri, Mar 4, 2011.
Free speech is an expensive and rare commodity. Everyone in power fears it, as every average man does. It involves honesty, truth and individualism. If it has any intrinsic value, that value lies in the fact that it opposes society. That it might hold a key to something better. Most men fear it, because it really involves taking responsibility for speaking it, for being honest with yourself as well as acknowledging the consequences. And most men fear responsibility. Yet, if you are honest, and accept responsibility, it's rather nice to live in a place where they won't kill you for the crime of recognizing their cowardice.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 8:17 am on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
Oh please....not ..."Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee" again. Well, I should have guessed it. Yet another ....TEA PARTY/ARIZONA/REPUBLICAN...bashing column from yet another ...Pro-Illegal Alien Amnesty ...proponent. Doesn't it gall you when some one who doesn't even .....LIVE or WORK...in Atlanta, Georgia write a whole column about what a Georgia Congressman did or did not say or did or did not do. Was this Columnist in Oglethorpe County and heard and saw Congressman Broun's response.....THE ANSWER IS NOW.....all ....2nd HAND REPORTING. A subject that I am sure is covered in detail by our ASU-Cronkite School of Journalism after reading many of it's alumni's articles.
As for the Southern Poverty Law Center (by the way...isn't that affiliated or funded by ole Jimmy "the Peanut Farmer" Carter's Center ???).....well....we all know where they are coming from...don't we...lol.
So yet another ....ANTI-REPUBLICAN...column from a Pro-Illegal Alien Amnesty writer based in San Antonio, Texas and hired by a San Diege New Service. Wow....no wonder some people sucked up this article with a straw.
Freethinker posted at 9:08 am on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
I was going to comment on Jose's use of grammar (or lack thereof), until I read Leon's post; while I agree with some of what he said, reading it gave me a headache!
As for the article:
"Currently. there are three main carriers of hate: hate mongers, nativists and antigovernment zealots."
Funny how Jose failed to mention that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE GROUPS IS RELIGIOUS IN NATURE OR HAS RELIGIOUS ADHERENTS.
"the harshest anti-immigrant law since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882"
Okay, now Jose is just being an ignorant bigot.
Anti-immigrant law? SB1070 is PRO-immigrant! It is also anti-illegal alien.
And you equate that with neo-Nazis (who are all Christians...imagine that!).
Congratulations, Jose de la Isla,
Thanks for proving that Godwin's Law is still in effect. And pay attention, because only people who have no rationale for their position use it. ;)
Freethinker posted at 9:15 am on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
And before anyone asks what Godwin's Law is:
Godwin's law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one's opponent) with Hitler or Nazis or their actions.
Falling foul of Godwin's law tends to end up causing the individual making the comparison to lose their argument and/or credibility.
"I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust" - Mike Godwin, formulator of the "law"
Accuracy posted at 11:30 am on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
Jose de la Isla concluded in his column: “Now tell me hate speech and acts haven't gone viral.”
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Like “Hate Bush” speeches by the Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2009 during George W. Bush's presidency??
Hate speech -- in this country, principally political, racist and anti-Semitic speech -- has always been recognized as First Amendment protected.
But as a complete distortion of the shocking question asked (at a town hall meeting in Athens, Ga.), Jose De La Isla is stating "Hate speech, like Rep. Paul Broun's, is dangerous.”
Accusing Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia) of hate speech, when it was a person at the town hall event that asked the question,"Who's going to shoot Obama?"
Cerulean posted at 9:05 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
Accuracy,
The hate speak did come from Republican Rep. Brown when he said that he feared the president would impose a Marxist dictatorship and establish a Gestapo-like security force.
Can you hear the flutist now?
Accuracy, You imply that Jose presents "a complete distortion of the shocking question asked (at a town hall meeting in Athens, Ga.)"
Can you tell us what the 'undistorted' version is that caused an elderly man to respond with such fear and violence?
Accuracy posted at 2:25 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Cerulean posted: “The hate speak did come from Republican Rep. Brown when he said that he feared the president would impose a Marxist dictatorship and establish a Gestapo-like security force.
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Rep. Paul Broun, a conservative from northeast Georgia, routinely calls Barack Obama a socialist, and is one of Obama's most hardline critics in Congress.
But in no way did Broun state at the Oglethorpe County town hall event on Tuesday, Feb. 22, the words “that he feared the president would impose a Marxist dictatorship and establish a Gestapo-like security force”.
Jose de la Isla wrote: “Rep. Paul Broun, a doctor and conservative third-term congressman from Athens, Ga., who had said after Obama's election in 2008 that he feared the president would impose a Marxist dictatorship and establish a Gestapo-like security force.” But in no way did Broun make that statement at the Oglethorpe County town hall event on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011.
Again, it was an elderly man at the Tuesday night meeting that asked the question “Who is going to shoot Obama?”
And the town hall query was completely off guard to Broun. Inappropriate as it was, the question did not come out of Broun’s mouth. But, Jose de la Isla’s column "Hate speech, like Rep. Paul Broun's, is dangerous" holds him fully responsible for it.
Arizona posted at 7:55 am on Tue, Apr 26, 2011.
People are arrested for murder and mayhem all over the United States every day. Many, many blacks will be shot in any eleven days in this country, but it has nothing to do with hate speech, or even with whites.
Loughner was a lone nut with a gun, trying to make him into a poster boy for something else won't work.