A Cancer in Our Midst

The overwhelming majority of Americans, as well as people around the world, have positive views of President-elect Obama, and hope has lifted us.  Unfortunately, there are those who are consumed by hate who would destroy the very foundations of our country.  No, I'm not talking about al Qaeda. I'm talking about people who would promote this kind of behavior in their children (h/t Andrew Sullivan):

Whoolery and his wife couldn't believe it when their second and third graders got off the bus last week and told them what other students were saying.

"They just hadn't heard anything like this before," said Whoolery. "They were chanting on the bus, 'Assassinate Obama. Assassinate Obama.' Then adding in a name sometimes of a classmate on the bus, 'Assassinate Obama and Kate.'"

The Whoolery's explained to their kids what assassinate means then contacted the school about what was happening.

This is not funny.  It's not harmless. It's irresponsible at best, and traitorous at worst. For those who may have forgotten or be too young to remember, before the attacks of 9/11 the worst terrorist attack on American soil was carried out, not by scary brown people, but by these guys:

That's right, good "patriotic" white males.  People who allow their delusions, stoked by zealots and talk show hosts, to run wild can cause catastrophic damage.  The tragedy is only increased by the fact that the "enemy" they feel compelled to fight against exists only in their minds.

Those of us who lived through the turbulence of the 1960s still remember the horror and disbelief of seeing three of our great leaders, John, Martin and Bobby, murdered.  Whether it's the lone madman or an organized group, there's no way to completely protect ourselves from such people.  That is part of the cost of living in a free society.  There is simply no such thing as complete security — unless you're locked in a padded cell.  But that realization doesn't preclude us from making every effort to eliminate such behavior by marginalizing it to the point that it gets into the "being struck by a falling meteorite" range.

To think that people would teach their children to chant words like "assassinate" while thinking of themselves as "righteous" and "patriotic" is just sick.  It's up to every one of us to resist this kind of talk, whether it comes in a forwarded email or a casual conversation.  It is a cancer in the soul of humanity, and every individual has a responsibility to do what they can to stop it wherever it tries to spread.

It's not funny.  It's not patriotic.  It must stop.