I am posting this article from ABC News in its entirety, because I think it's important. Commentary will follow.
Obama's Safety: Fear Grows for President as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash
Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President
By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and MEGAN CHUCHMACH
August 14, 2009
Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.
The Secret Service is investigating a Maryland man who held a sign reading "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" outside a town hall meeting this week. And in New Hampshire, another man stood across the street from a Presidential town hall with his gun on full display.
Los Angeles police officers apprehended a man Thursday after a standoff with him inside a red Volkswagen Bug car in Westwood, CA – the latest disturbing case even though officials said the man had mental problems.
"I don't think these are simply people who are mentally ill or off their rocker," Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News of those behind the threats. "In a very real sense they represent a genuine reaction, a genuine backlash against Obama."
Experts say a sharp growth in so-called militia groups that helped spawn a wave of domestic terrorism in the 1990s – and are now using YouTube, rock music and the Internet to recruit members and spread hate and fear - shouldn't be ignored.
"It's certainly a scary time," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant. Garrett said the Secret Service "cannot afford to pass on anyone," and he believes "they really do fear that something could happen to [Obama]."
Garrett said statements like one recently made by controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh comparing a logo for the White House plan to a Nazi symbol "legitimizes people who are on the edge to go do something or say something."
"And if you go and take a look at this, you will find that the Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo," Limbaugh said.
Later, someone painted a swastika outside the office of Congressman David Scott of Georgia, one of Obama's supporters.
While officials told ABC News that the President's daily threat matrix has yet to reflect a sharp increase in threats, White House officials privately admit deep concern and have told the Secret Service to keep security tight, even if Obama objects.
"I think the president has, in effect, triggered fears amongst fairly large numbers of white people in this country that they are somehow losing their country, that the battle is lost," Potok told ABC News. "The nation that their Christian white forefathers created has somehow been taken from them."
I'm too young to remember President Kennedy's assassination, or those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. As someone who loves history, though, I've read quite a bit about the reaction in the country and around the world, as well as talking with family members who do remember those horrible days. My Dad was in the National Guard, and it was a dangerous time for him.
Does any rational person in this country want to go through such turmoil again, or see anything bad happen to the President, his family, or those close to him? It would be disastrous on many levels, including our standing in the world. We finally get a President that much of the world kinda digs, and some lunatic takes him out? Is that really the image we want to project to the world?
I don't know how many ways I can say it. Those who are inflaming people with their incendiary words are now doing more harm than good. I believe that many of the people who are shouting at these meetings are concerned citizens who don't mean any harm to anyone (although yelling does nothing to further the discussion). However, and this is a very large and important caveat, there are people who hate our President and wish to do him harm, and those numbers are apparently increasing. The vitriol that we're hearing from those who are primarily concerned with their ratings is inflammatory and hateful, and there will be someone at some point who will become so incensed by what they are hearing that they want to harm the President.
For those who would say that President Bush got plenty of vitriol himself, there's no denying that. But come on...anyone can see that what we are witnessing now is at a level that is beyond what President Bush had to deal with. It would seem to be approaching the tipping point, and if these so-called "patriots" on TV and talk radio really wish to see their country safe, they will ratchet down the rhetoric several notches. Terrorists don't come only from overseas. Remember Timothy McVey? Words have power, and they can move people to action. Make sure that your words move people towards positive action rather than hateful, negative action.
So everyone needs to chill the eff out and calm down. Be civil, be respectful, and stop the hateful speech.
One more commentary on a related issue, then I'll pipe down for a while. [grin] Much of what I’m hearing from those who oppose health care reform is that countries like Canada and England have horrible systems and that people there have to wait so long for care that they die. I'm not sure who they're talking to, because every single online friend from those countries who has emailed me or commented here has been a great supporter of their health care system. Ziggy and Ted in Canada, Simon, Mort, Sybil, Andy in England...did I forget anyone? Indeed, some of our friends across the pond have taken exception to the right's hijacking of their National Health System for their own purposes, and have had a few things to say about it. One of the most egregious--and ludicrous--comments came from a business editorial which said that someone like Stephen Hawking "wouldn't have a chance" in the UK, that because of his affliction and physical limitations, he would be left to die.
Professor Hawking was born in the UK, lives there, and released a statement saying that he wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Britain's NHS.
