I was prepared to discuss another topic for my next blog entry, but this one caught my eye. I wanted to address the death of little Shaniya Davis, the little missing girl that was recently found dead along a stretch of road.I'm thinking of other little black girls, the First Children, Sasha and Malia. It seems that the enterprising minds of American capitalism have found a new way to make a buck and threaten President Obama and his family at the same time. We all know that the threats against the president is at an all time high, and that the Secret Service is overwhelmed by the number. And to make matters worse, I understand the agency is understaffed and underfunded.
Why this is so, is beyond me. The fallout that could occur if this nation's first black president, or the first family is intentionally hurt by an assassin's bullet, or a homegrown terrorist's bomb, could be catastrophic. It could set race relations back a number of years, and create a climate of distrust that could threaten the slight closing of the racial divide that the election of Obama has brought us, and, at worse, descend this nation into the unthinkable--a race war.
And I don't think that I'm overstating my case. It's how I see a probable outcome to such a horrible act. Given the insouciance of some in the media, more inclined to fuel the fire than put it out, each day we're brought closer to what could be our national Armageddon.
I've blogged about this before. It's not my purpose to dwell on the negative, but to raise the consciousness of us all to this potential threat.
Here's the latest. It seems that tee shirts and bumper stickers featuring Bible verse citations, following a request to pray for President Obama, is nothing more than a veiled threat against him and his family. The Christian Science Monitor covered the story and Rachel Maddow on her show highlighted it as well.
There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”
A nice sentiment?
Maybe not.
The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”
Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.
But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
On the Rachel Maddow show in the segment, "While You Were Out," we have this. If you haven't seen this segment, it's rather long, and covers among other things, the furor that President Obama raised by bowing to the Japanese Emperor on his recent trip abroad. Maddow's guest during this segment sums up my feelings, and issues a chilling alarm.
Her guest appeals to those who voted for President Obama to take a stand and speak out, and to right-wing evangelicals to condemn the behavior behind the offensive slogans. I said this before. I think the president's supporters have been overly quiet, and have not rushed to his rescue during the months he has been under siege by the Right.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I find it perplexing. The president has made significant strides toward satisfying his campaign pledges, and has generally behaved as he promised, whether, at times, we find the pace of "change" slower than we'd like, or his efforts towards "bipartisanship" frustrating and overdone.
If you'd like to keep track of President Obama's campaign promises, those that he has kept, and how one site is rating them, consider the following link to PolitiFact.com. When you take into account that this is his first year, I would say that to date his achievements have been impressive, although, for many, disappointing.
President Obama has three more years to tackle and fulfill some of these promises. The sticking point, of course, is a Democrat party with too many Republicans calling themselves Democrats. What better way to sabotage your opponent's party than to enter his races, run, and win, and then vote with the opposing aisle, or frustrate the efforts of your perceived party. I swear, I believe some of this is going on. What think you?
17 comments:
Stay classy wingnuts.
I saw a good cartoon about the so-called Blue Dogs. It showed them snoozing while Bush snuck past them with trillion dollar wars and still sleeping soundly while Bush tiptoed past with tax cuts for billionaires. Then it showed them snarling and barking and leaping at the end of their chains at Obama for trying to get health care reform past them.
BD
I am glad you post about the very real threat aimed at the Obama family. I am not an overly religious person, but I do believe in a higher power. We can only continue to pray that no harm comes to the President or his family.
Obama is not the first President to receive threats, but as far as I know he is the first President to have threats towards his entire family. No matter how some will try to sugar coat it, the high number of threats against President Obama and his family is because of the color of their skin.
It hurts when I laugh, but I can't stop.
Very funny!
I checked out a black conservative blog. The blogger reminds me of the cartoon you described. He was knocking MSNBC for being fast and loose with the facts, but had nothing but praise for Glenn Beck.
The blogger is black, but he can't see that Beck is using a plethora of lies and distortions that militate against his best interest.
If Beck succeeds in starting a race war, using inflammatory language, fanning the flames of hatred, and xenophobia, and calling for a conservation of the status quo, those with guns, fighting in the streets to "take their country back," aren't going to stop and ask this black brother if he's a conservative, or whether he was a regular viewer of Fox News, and the Glenn Beck show.
The irony is stifling. How soon some blacks forget the racial legacy of this country, and think they can wipe it away by joining up with the ones who have only a limited number of seats in reserve for the gullible.
Do you remember that Twilight Zone show where extraterrestrials landed on earth, bringing with them cures for all our diseases, and other grab-bag goodies, and we let our defenses down, and reluctantly began to trust them, only to learn--once irrevocably on their ships back to their planet for what was to be a pleasure cruise--that their book, titled, "To Serve Man," which, if fully decrypted, would reveal the heart and soul of the newcomers, was a "cookbook"?
Many of my black conservative brothers and sisters are like those hapless travelers. They have the Republican Party's play book in hand, which they have only partially decrypted, but, once fully decrypted, will learn that the title, "To Serve The Black Man," is their goose being cooked, and not a guide book for their full integration into the Republican Party's exclusive world.
Blinders Off, keep your prayers coming. Believe me, the president is going to need them.
I pray for him several times a day, and that's still not enough. The more of us who pitch in, and unite our prayers, the greater the impact, and the greater the good.
We have always been a racist society. Many scholars would have you believe that is not so, that racism had a beginning in this country, and that beginning can be documented.
I'm not persuaded.
Were the president white, our Secret Service would still have their work cut out, but it would be no greater than for past presidents.
Yes, it is all about his color. The black trumps the white, and his enemies don't care if the white dies right along with him.
How dare the army allow Palin to appear at Fort Bragg? Obama is commander in chief, this is completely wrong. I think this will just add more fuel to the fire. If there is a race war, we can lay it on the laps of bitches like Palin, Murdock, and Fake News, because they are INCITING the brewing hatred and taking advantage of the failed economy.
The people who made up these "psalms" are EVIL.
Some of the things I hear people say get me very frightened, and I think about my choices, do i say something? Should I frame it just so, in just the right way? Will it make a differnce? Or should I just store up these thoughts for later? Don't know, it is very scary.
The other night, a bunch of white male gays at the DKOS got really upset when their privilege was pointed out, they are leading the boycot against Organizing for America, they were pathetic and totally unaware of their defensive and hatefilled responses. White Liberal Progressives, they are so sleepy, zombie like, that is probalby why so little response, so many white people are zombies.
BD, I wanted to use your quote about making comparisons to the black experience on my blog, it was right on, and I have always had trouble putting it into words the way you did, thank you so much for that, again.
@kathy: "BD, I wanted to use your quote about making comparisons to the black experience on my blog...."
Kathy, I'd be honored.
I had the same feeling about the Fort Bragg visit. Wasn't it Palin that attempted to link Obama to a known terrorist?
If I were in charge, she'd have to recant to receive red carpet entree.
Black Diaspora,
Just think, Palin had klanpaign rally's where people called out "terrorist". She should not be allowed to step foot near a military base.
It makes me feel sick to think that she is allowed on a military base, but I suppose McCain got her in.
Hi Black Diaspora, Prophetess speaking, I put the blame where it should lye, it lye's with the President!
We have a Democrat as a President, yet, he put Republican's in his cabinet, the REP/CON RAGE WAR on the PRESIDENT, yet, he will not say a Mumbling WORD! his Wife and children life are on the line, yet, this Biracial President will yet Cater to REP/CON!!! now, you tell me, what's wrong with this picture?
I will NO longer blame the REP/CON, I blame the President! he was given this office to be the Leader of this Country! yet, the people that put him in office are getting a SLAP in the Face! DEM,LIB, PROG, and Independent's put this man in the WHITE HOUSE!
Yes I will Pray, I will Pray that the President will Man up!!!! these people are not PLAYING with him! forget about Strategy! this is about Survival! these people don't care about Strategy, they invented that word! this is about stepping up and Denouncing any such thing as a RACE WAR!
God has given this man POWER, AUTHORITY and the people! so he need's to Man up!!!!
iseeisee
Black Diaspora, when I wrote my comment earlier, I had yet to read the entire Psalm controversy, well, now I have!
I have to be honest, the President has to deal with the fact that, he is HATED by certain people in his RACE! we must understand, the President is Biracial, so when he look's at the people that are perpetrating HATRED toward him, he has to see them as his WHITE side, it's impossible for him to get around this, these people are the his people! remember he was Raised by his WHITE side, before he came into the Knowledge of his Black side!
The President has no problem with Denouncing the behavior of Black men, but, he is hesitant to come forth and DENOUNCE the people that want to bring harm to his Family, this has to STOP! he has to call these people OUT! Group by Group, name by name, these people are DANGEROUS! they want BLOOD SHED! look at their History!!!!! how do you think, they came into Power? TRACE their footstep's!!!
iseeisee
iseeisee,
Obama writes in his auto-biography about being the only one or two children in his class in Hawaii who was black, so even though he got raised by white people, I think he was made pretty aware as a child of what it means to be treated as the "other" and to be hated, even if his grandparents didnt give him the words to figure it out, he knew. Actually, I think it would have been harder on him, no one to confide in, no one to help him understand, no one to prepare him, that must have been really, really hard and very lonely for him. The things done to him and his family is too sad for words.
He probably knows better than most what it means to fit in nowhere and to be hated for the color of his skin, to be called the affirmative action candidate, or even the nobel peace prize affirmative action choice, and for him to see his wife and children targeted must be a deep knife in the heart for him, I have to pray for his family and for him too, this must really hurt him and his family deeply. He is lucky to have Michelle, and I think he knows that.
kathy said...
"Black Diaspora,
Just think, Palin had klanpaign rally's where people called out "terrorist". She should not be allowed to step foot near a military base."
Kathy, I agree. I don't understand winning by any means necessary: for example, besmirching an opponent's reputation to win a race. Any race.
Palin knew that Obama wasn't a "terrorist," a terrorist sympathizer, nor a friend of one, and, like her cohort Glenn Beck, she sought to gain at Obama's expense, and reap the harvest of a lie.
It's a sad day in America. Will we ever grow up?
@iseesee: "God has given this man POWER, AUTHORITY and the people! so he need's to Man up!!!!"
You voice the sentiment of many. At times I, too, am tempted to join the chorus, but then I remember that Obama's come farther than many who set out on his journey.
President Obama is not a president by mistake. It was a calculated endeavor taking into account the risks and the hope for success.
Many hopefuls started out with him, but he was the one to cross the finish line.
I know it's frustrating to watch him do things that appear counterintuitive, but his unorthodox approach has served him well.
I'm not going to throw in the towel just yet. And, I'm not going to say the fight is lost just yet, we have three more rounds to go.
And although our opponents don't fight fair, and the referee appears to be more in their corner than ours, I'm going to be pulling for our side until the last bell.
Thank you Black Diaspora, the time will come when the President will have to make a choice, it is either, let go of his Adversary's or hold on to his Base, the Base are the people fighting and Praying for him, I consider myself part of his base!
Yes, I fuss, for, I see thing's, a long way off, Sarah Palin is being Groomed for the White House! the REP/CON and the Media are working together, why do you think, they keep her in the SPOT LIGHT? think back, didn't they do the President the same way?
It was, no way, no how, a Black man would become President, well, now look, and don't sell Sarah Palin short! she is shrewd! Hillary Clinton may have been Ambitious, Sarah Palin is Ruthless! that's why the REP/CON love her!
I may be a bit off topic, but, I don't underestimate the REP/CON, these people will fight to the latter end, nothing is Sacred, when it come's to these people, they are coming after the President's Family!!!! well, I saw this a long way off!
iseeisee
@iseeisee: "The Base are the people fighting and Praying for him, I consider myself part of his base!"
Bless you iseeisee. We have this in common. President Obama, and his family, are in my prayers continually, and, like you, I have been charged with this sacred duty.
This country is at a crossroad. It doesn't know it yet, but we do. We can't afford to lose this fight, so many are counting on us.
You're right: they're mounting their attack, but we're stronger. We only have to trust, and keep our resolve strong.
Anyone making any death threats against any President should be arrested.
Anyone tacitly referring to this point needs to be shamed by the people with conscious who realize that this sort of tactic has no place in our public discourse.
WITH THAT SAID - [quote]It could set race relations back a number of years, and create a climate of distrust that could threaten the slight closing of the racial divide that the election of Obama has brought us, and, at worse, descend this nation into the unthinkable--a race war.[/quote]
WHY should I be more concerned about the THREAT of harm done upon this one Black man - who just happens to be the MOST PROTECTED HUMAN BEING ON THE PLANET - instead of making note of the daily murderous assault upon Black people that is present today?
Republicans are typically called insensitive for judging the state of the nation by looking at the ECONOMIC standing of the few while ignoring the plight of the masses. It appears that you are being very "Republican-like" as you evaluate the standing of the Black race upon the threats to ONE BLACK MAN - as many cities with a large population of Blacks experience murder rates in the triple digits.
Why are POLITICAL threats more important than real world threats to the masses?
@CF: "Why are POLITICAL threats more important than real world threats to the masses?"
The answer is patently obvious to anyone but you.
For that reason, it would represent a waste of time to respond.
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