Why Obama Matters in History

They took your lives; they could not take your pride

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

- RFK
Day of Affirmation Address, 6/6/66,
University of Capetown, Capetown, South Africa

City of Blinding Lights
(Paul Hewson; Dave Evans; Adam Clayton; Larry Mullen)


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The ADL and its marriage to the enemies of tolerance

- The ADL is oblivious to the fact that they are making an alliance of convenience with the enemies of tolerance, the Christian right -

The ADL had already given up its commitment to tolerance, see Religious Right Figures Signing Pro-war Statement Identified by ADL as Assaulting Tolerance and Pluralism in 1994, so it was not great surprise to see it oppose the building of an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.

The ADL is not oblivious, as Paul Krugman says yesterday; it's self-consciously committed.

The First Amendment must make way to the demands of war and intolerance.

By Paul Krugman

Peter Beinart has an excellent piece on how the Israeli occupation of the West Bank inexorably led the Anti-Defamation League into abandoning its principles, culminating in the awful decision to call for banning the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.

Let me add two thoughts.

First, this has been building for a very long time. I remember my first visit to Israel, in 1981; even then older Israeli academics, veterans of an earlier era (literally — many of them had fought in 1967 and 1973), would talk grimly about the Likud government and its harsh policies, saying things like “I feel as if we’re living under a foreign occupation.” And it’s only gotten worse since then.

Second, Beinart doesn’t talk as much as I’d like about how this relates to U.S. politics. As he says, American liberals, while they fiercely support Israel’s right to exist, can’t bring themselves to support the policies of Israel’s current government. So the Israel-is-always-right crowd has gravitated to people who don’t have any problem with the occupation — which means the American hard right, including the Christian right. And they seem oblivious to the fact that they are thus making an alliance of convenience with the enemies of tolerance.

Anyway, it has been gratifying to see how many people understand just how wrong the ADL was; and special props to Mayor Bloomberg, who said exactly the right things.

Hate in America

Update II: See the big hate.
- Paul Krugman

Update: Can right-wing hate talk lead to murder? Two terror events in two weeks makes me wonder if media extremists might turn down the ugly rhetoric for a bit. - Joan Walsh

Another hate crime. This act a white supremacist murdering a man at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

This is why we need the Southern Poverty Law Center. Why we need to become vigilant against racial profiling and all acts of racism and hate.

Why we need to constantly confront the ignorant among us.

The appeal to racism, bigotry and hate is a staple of the Republican Party, and not just isolated American whacks. You can bet this murderer is not a big fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the civil rights movement, and likely not a voice against racial profiling.

Since the inception of Nixon’s Southern Strategy in 1968, continuing through Reagan’s 1980 campaign kick-off in Philadelphia, Mississippi [the site of the murder of civil rights workers, Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, 16 years earlier], right on up to Bush and McCain, playing on the bigotries in America has been standard GOP fare.

Instead of the ignorant and hateful being politically marginalized, the GOP sees a political opportunity that they have never stopped using. The results are plain and ugly.

Here in Wisconsin, for most Wisconsin GOP writers, Milwaukee talk radio, and the Republican Party, the Civil Rights movement never happened.

So it's no stretch for them to obstruct black voters, disenfranchise gays, and play on the fears and prejudices of the ignorant who comprise the base of today's Republican Party.

As always the civil rights movement will stand tall against the ignorant masses of the GOP; it's just too bad that these haters find so much comfort in a major American political party.

OUR LIVES Acclaims LGBTQA People

Madison has a fresh addition to its media that Bill O’Reilly famously scorned for its “communing with Satan.”

And this magazine's writers are heading straight into the searing hellfire, with a unique mix of empathy, pride and love.

Madison’s new Our Lives celebrates the humanity of LGBTQA individuals, and applauds the community’s pioneering work in civil rights by helping individuals' quality of life and expanding and integrating the LGBTQA community.

Patrick Farabaugh, the editor and publisher of Our Lives magazine, explains on Our Lives’ website that its mission is “… to clearly, candidly and openly reflect the diversity and optimism in our community. We are dedicated to improving our readers’ quality of life by celebrating the people, establishments and events that encourage us to embrace our identities as individuals and as a LGBTQA community.”

The Our Lives journal can be found in establishments throughout Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire, La Crosse and Green Bay.

Though non-partisan and even apolitical, Our Lives publishes in today’s political culture where the prerequisite to securing the Republican nomination to the U.S. presidency is either to declare hostility to the LGBTQA community or repudiate one’s past commitments to civil rights and equality, like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

Our Lives vows that hate and exclusion will not stand and that the journal will affirm LGBTQA individuals by explaining and acquainting readers with each “… story, identity and person regardless of notoriety or lack thereof.”

Though blatant bigotry against LGBTQA persons is anathema in Madison and many areas of Wisconsin, garden-variety and de jure discrimination survives and presents challenges that Our Lives aims to overcome by establishing an oasis of inclusion and citizenship to which America aspires.
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