Better Angels and Hateful Demons

Abraham Lincoln hoped that the "better angels of our nature" would prevail not just in the Civil War, but in the fight for justice for all men.  The arc of history is long, said Martin Luther King, but it bends toward justice. Or so we hope.

The national and global euphoria over Barack O'Bama's election has come to a sad and sudden halt.  According to a recent study, O'Bama has received more death threats than any president-elect in history.  This week, according to AP, school children in Idaho were heard chanting "assassinate Obama" on a school bus.  And in Georgia, Grant Griffin said:  "I believe our nation is ruined . . . and the election of Obama is the culmination of this change.  If you had real change, it would involve all members of Obama's church being deported."  I'll bet he supports the Second Amendment . . . but not the First.  For more sad gems from Georgia, my home state, and other places across the country, go here: Assassination.

On the day he was assassinated, John Kennedy was greeted with a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News that declared the soon-to-be slain President "Wanted for Treason."

The accusations and slanderous slogans of many who despise the O'Bama victory are eerily and uncannily similar to those uttered about Kennedy forty five years ago this month.  The motivation that declares O'Bama a "socialist," "communist," "Marxist," "Muslim," emanates from the same hateful fount that prompted the treason ad above.

To think that there are some children in this country who wish their president dead makes me sad for those children, their lost innocence, and the life they must live with such hateful parents.  To think that some across this nation have created an O'Bama "dead pool" chills me to my core.  To think that some deranged citizens of this nation are plotting to do Osama bin Laden's bidding and assassinate the most powerful man in the world makes me do something I have not done in a while: pray.

Comments

[Jim Mc Mahon]

Great article Joel. It is hard for me to believe that this Dr. Braun would be making these kindof comments. He is a Representative-he must be deranged. How in the world did he get elected. You talk about what is wrong with the Republican party. I would think that they would dis-own him. At least call for his impeachment. We have free speech-but those comments are sure to stir up some real problems for all of us.

I hope the Secret Service does their job with Obama and his family.

[Beth Foster]

I agree that we should all pray for the safety of Obama and his family...I also believe that we should pray for the unknowing and the ignorant for they are the ones that pose the largest threat. I have lived in the South for 29 of my 30 years of life and I have witnessed many things from a Klan March when I was 8 years old to an all out race riot in a high school lunch room. My Great-Aunt wouldn't even allow me to get a Sno-Cone from the ice cream man in Doraville because he was black.

If there is one thing I have observed then it would have to be the extreme ignorance that is embedded in the very genes of the people of the South. Please understand that I am not refering to all Southerners, probably just the majority. We beg for change, but when change comes knocking on our doors in the form of a black man with a Muslim middle name, well that is simply not what we meant. Geez oh man!

With all the ignorance and hate swirling around the South and other parts of the country, it's no wonder our President-elect has received so many threats. So I will continue to pray for Mr. Obama and his family, for the parents that teach their children hate and finally for the children who do not know better.

[Stephen Hull]

Let us all Pray for the safety of Obama and his family.