Editor,
I want to thank Hunter Riley for her story about the visit of Sen. John McCain to UNM. Riley reported that after McCain asked the crowd "Who is the real Barack Obama?" someone shouted out "terrorist." McCain didn't speak out against this ignorance; he just laughed along with the rest of the crowd. Only Riley, MSNBC and CNN covered the comments. The Albuquerque Journal, KRQE, KOB and KOAT ignored the comments.
On NPR's "Democracy Now!" Republican Frank Schaeffer said McCain is "deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate." As last week progressed, McCain supporters were shouting out "traitor," "treason," "kill him," "off with his head," "nobama," "bomb Obama," "Obama bin lying" and "sit down boy."
A YouTube.com video titled the "Sidewalk to Nowhere" shows the crowd outside a McCain-Sarah Palin rally in Bethlehem, Penn. McCain's supporters say Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist. Friday, McCain corrected an elderly lady who read that Obama was Arab. The McCain campaign is running ads about Obama being friends with terrorists.
When another voter said he was afraid because Obama was friends with terrorists, McCain said, "Obama is a decent man." McCain's supporters turned on him, booing loudly. At an Obama rally when supporters booed McCain, Barack Obama said, "We don't need that. We just need to vote."
A few months ago, McCain was asked whom he would counsel in a crisis. He mentioned Gen. David Petraeus and Rep. John Lewis. On Saturday, Rep. Lewis said the atmosphere at Republican rallies reminded him of those of the segregationist George Wallace. The McCain campaign reacted hysterically and pointed out that McCain was a prisoner of war. The Obama campaign said Obama "does not believe that John McCain or any policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies," but Lewis was "right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
During Palin's RNC nomination speech, she quoted Westbrook Pegler. In the 1960s, Pegler wrote of Robert Kennedy, "Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls." This week at a McCain rally in Iowa a Christian preacher offered a prayer: "There are millions of people around this world praying to their God - whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that Obama wins for a variety of reasons. Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens."
We the people need to focus on the financial, military and climate crisis; they are all connected. We are not an empire; we are a republic. The U.S. government is broke, the U.S. military is breaking and the U.S. media are focused on bread and circuses. We have education, credit, health care and credibility crises.
Do we really have to debate the Vietnam War again? Were the Weather Underground domestic terrorists or revolutionaries? What's the difference between freedom fighters and terrorists?
Brian Fejer
UNM alumnus
