I was very moved by the president’s speech in Newtown, Connecticut tonight. I’d like to post a video of the speech in its entirety once it is available. I agree with him. We can’t say that the loss of our children is simply the price of freedom. We can’t accept that we can’t do any better. The politics may be hard and the solutions even harder, but we have to change. And we have to try.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
45 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
I am wondering if there’s any limit for some people before we finally say, “enough”? Obama said this was the forth time he’s spoken at a service like this.
Would some people feel different if this happened once a month? Once a week? Every day? Since nothing we could do would guarantee this would never happen again, does that provide an excuse to do nothing?
Actually, it does happen every week. It’s just not always concentrated at one location, like this one. And the victim or victims are often individuals who do not evoke a feeling of self identification among the majority of the population. This one was different. And that might just make a huge difference.
Let’s hope so. I am just so tired of this crap from the NRA – we can’t do nothing.
I read one retard asshole who said that he often fired 150 rounds in practice, so having to reload was too much of an imposition. Just beyond comprehension the level of selfish stupidity.
I like to shoot, too. And I am pretty good at it. Have enjoyed it since I was a kid; when I used to walk along the railroad tracks by the river and plink at cans with a .22. But I have to wonder about those guys I see at the range whose sole purpose for coming seems to be to see how quickly they can empty the magazine of their 9mm Glock. They seem to get a charge out of dumping 10 rounds in 6 seconds. And they will do it over and over and over. I think it’s to make up for some kind of masculine inadequacy, myself.
There is some kind of sick inadequacy. I shot in high school myself. I would bring my .22 to high school on Wed, and leave it in the office. It was a very old rifle. I enjoyed it.
Something changed around 1985. I think that it was the passing from the main scene of the WWII generation. These folks understood guns. They had killed other 19 YOs. They didn’t need fantasy heroics supplied by the NRA. No men in my youth were gun wackos. They had done the gun wacko thing. For them, guns were the moment of terror and actual horror.
for the cardboard cowboys of Reagan’s generation, they had mostly evaded Vietnam, and heard stories about WWII. They are all chickenshits mostly. They didn’t actually do anything, and all the NRA stuff is just playacting crap. The US is the safest place in the world, except for all the gunsuck wacks.
Of course it does happen, but killing is so common it barely merits mention unless it’s massive in scale. Still, the people defending doing nothing appear to me to be willing to tolerate it to an astounding degree.
Yes, the complete intransigence of some of these people is just mind boggling. It appears that to some, there is absolutely no flexibility. It is an insane and fanatical stance. I know some of these kinds of people. And I just don’t get it.
I was deeply moved by his speech. When he read the names of the vicitms, I nearly lost it. His determination and sincere promise to do something were very clear. I believe he will find a way to start the ball rolling in a positive direction, no matter how difficult it’s going to be.
This is the man I voted for: confident, compassionate, and strong. Let’s hope he can move us forward on this issue and others.
.
I liked the speech, other than the several religious references.
You simply cannot be serious. What a gratuitously crappy thing to say.
It is the place of the president, in the moments of great civic loss and grief, to act as the chief priest in our civic religion. As an atheist and militant unitarian, I thought his comments in extremely good taste. and with appropriate level of religion. He was delivering a eulogy, for god’s sake.
Have some fucking respect.
Wow. Not everyone feels that it is necessary, and not everyone is a Christian. But thanks for your very civil response.
I’m an atheist, too. And while I don’t personally ascribe any personal importance to the religious phrasing, I also thought he did a great job of balancing the religious context in his speech. Those things he said might mean nothing to me, but it is very important to a lot of these people in trying to come to terms with this tragedy from a human standpoint. I have no problem with what he said. I thought it was beautiful.
As I said, he is, at moments like this, the chief priest and celebrant (in the religious language, not that he is celebrating) of the ritual of civic morning. And believe in it or not, our country has a tradition involving the invocation of the almighty. Lincoln, by all rights either entirely indifferent to religion or outright an atheist himself (if that were possible during that time), invoked the Almighty in every speech or near about that often. And, yes, at such moment, the chief priest must comfort those who have lost.
I thought it a speech which was extremely well done. Moving, thoughtful, at times with a bit of poetry, but staying away from mawkishness.
I thought his speech moving, thoughtful, and with wonderful respect to the dead, both the children and the adults. Many of the adults gave their lives to try to help the children. More cannot be asked nor expected of an educator, and they gave the last full measure.
Here’s a very sad comment: One of the little girls was a Brownie scout, and her mother is the troop leader. Of the 10 little girls in that troop, 5 are left alive. Just tears out my heart.
Obama’s Newtown Speech
I am continually astounded by Barack Obama. Is he the world’s greatest political actor? A totally blind America-firster? The canniest and most in control of his emotions U.S. politician since FDR or Abraham Lincoln? Certainly the speech that I just witnessed contained real emotional content. He is horrified by the murderous impulses and tendencies of the American underbelly and he is torn up by the death of Newtown’s innocents. Torn up.
But at the same time, he only mourns the lives of American children. Of American innocents. (Publicly.) How many more innocents’ blood is on his hands from the drone war and the other U.S. military adventures upon which he has signed off? Is he that blind? That line-level stupid? I refuse to believe it. His depth of emotion and obvious understanding on many levels belie that idea. So where does that leave us?
I really don’t know.
Do you?
What a Sphinx.
Is a puzzlement.
AG
And here we have the whole “rating” thing in all of its post-dKos glory. Recently a “0” was a troll rating. Now apparently it’s a “1” that rates a troll. When did that change?
So…does IL Jim P think that I am some kind of troll?
What is a “troll,” exactly?
Well…Wikipedia says:
Let’s take it from the top:
Lemme see.
“…extraneous or off-topic?”
No. An ad for knock-off high fashion shoes would be off-topic, and something about the state of the NFL would be extraneous.
“Inflammatory?” Trying to figure out where our president is really coming from is “inflammatory?” Spoken very gently and in real wonder? Not in my book. Freedom of speech and all that?
Certainly not off-topic.
A politely phrased question? Had I called him a fucking liar, that might have been “intentionally provocative.” But my question…my polite and sincere question…stands. What is Obama really thinking? Is he half-blind and half-brilliant? Just another great political actor? A total sham? I have the right to ask these questions without being labelled a troll.
But unrestrained ratings constrain that freedom of thought and speech. How about rating the raters? How many stupid ratings has this poster given? How many thoughtful posts has this poster made? Is disagreement grounds for troll rating? If so, this site and the entire system of free speech is doomed.
Rate the raters.
A “1” from some should be worth a “4,” and vice-versa.
Just sayin’…
Where y’all at?
Really.
Hmmmm.
Later…
AG
to make you happy I changed it to a 0
You’re welcome
Thank you.
You brand yourself with every uncalled-for rating.
Have a nice day.
AG
No whining about ratings, people are not rational beings.
At best they are a rational mouse riding an emotional bull.
That you changed your style to something that makes, at least to me, more sense doesnt mean you get to score points because people distrust you. Also no points for telling people what to do.
Unless this is your kind of politics, throw spanners in the emotional workings and exploit the resulting fallout.
That has been done since life could mislead other life.
No “whining” about it, bazzz. i have things to say and I spend time saying them as well as I can do so. Lots of time. If my comments are going to be rated off then I will use my time in other ways. It’s not like I don’t have other things to do.
Simple enough.
Later…
AG
You’re right. I don’t want to get into any pissing matches with others here, but imo it’s abusive to rate someone down just for writing something that you don’t agree with.
Otoh, I rate people up all the time for saying things that I like, so maybe I’m the one being inconsistent here.
Im not sure what you mean by what a sphinx.
The rest you are quite right, besides that no real person could ever live up to the absurd standards you set.
Let alone someone who has to act to please a wide public like a president.
Sphinx-like.
…mysterious and not allowing people to know what you are thinking
AG
Ah yep, he is one cool cat. In control of his surroundings and his outward emotions.
I like that in people who manage other people.
He had the same emotions I have had since: he seemed unbelievably pissed, hurt, and frustrated. Especially when he said “fourth time.” Has it really been the fourth time he’s publicly attended one of these since his ascent to the office? Unbelievable.
Here’s the link to C-Span’s archive of the speech. It says the vid’s not embeddable. The President begins speaking near the 1:22:00 mark.
I thought it was a great speech and very possibly historic.
Romney couldn’t possible have done 10% as well. W would have been worse. I think he was far more authentic than Clinton would have been.
I am grateful for this president in these very trying times.
But I also wonder how the speech and his actions are being viewed by the 35-40 of Americans who simply hate Obama and anything/everything he does. Can they get past their racist hatred in this time of national need?
I also wonder how the speech and his actions are being viewed by the 35-40 of Americans who simply hate Obama and anything/everything he does. Can they get past their racist hatred in this time of national need?
The same thought was running through my mind. I think we both know the answer to that. And I won’t have to wait long to find out for certain. I’ll get to hear from some of these people when I stop in the morning to pick up my coffee for the ride to the office. I’m sure it will be a topic of conversation among the morning crowd there.
My prediction is that they will scream that he politicized a memorial. Won’t play as well as it did when they went ballistic over the Wellstone memorial — but will be good enough to satisfy the Obama haters who can repeat that and not bother watching/listening to the speech.
Most of them probably won’t watch the speech. They’ll get the soundbites over Hate Radio with the parts where the President talks about having to do something, not being willing to have kids’ blood be the price of our freedoms, and they’ll say, “see? Wayne LaPierre was right! He’s just been waiting for the right opportunity to take our freedoms (freedoms=guns, you know) away!!”
It’s gotten them this far. Unless their neighbors and co-workers give them the thorough shaming that another poster on this board recommended, they’ll have little enough reason to change tactics now. Because this time, their fears have some basis in reality.
True. (But disagree that GWB wouldn’t have done as well as Romney.) However, as we saw for eight long years during the reign of Bush, the MSM can put any GOP POS speech through its grinder and declare that it was masterful. Then repeat their assessment until a majority of the public agrees.
Here, stop wondering:
“Take That Nigger Off The TV, We Wanna Watch Football!”
It’s mildly amusing that these cowards deleted their Twitter accounts. They can broadcast their hate remarks in their private Twitter circles, but once those tweets go viral, they can’t take the heat.
Always a shock to see an underbelly of some Americans. If anyone needs to take a few moments out of his/her life to reflect on incivility and violence in this country, it would be those that posted those vile comments.
And if there’s anybody less likely to do such a thing, it’s those same people.
They make the case against themselves to participate in decisions going forward.
This is now a moral discussion, a societal contract debate and if we can label the side effects on drugs, disallow cigarette purchase for teenagers, and watch Bloomberg limit the intake of soda, surely our culture can recognize we can do better.
Those were beautiful children, brave teachers and a courageous principal.
I started a reply to this and it grew. Now a stand-alone post.
Read it here if you so desire.
Gun Reform? Follow the Money. Bet on it. A Broad View.
AG
great speech. When he listed the names of the kids, I came pretty close to losing it.
those poor families. Ugh. I feel for anyone that loses a kid to a bullet, but this is just overwhelming in terms of sheer magnitude.
I did lose it. It was a very moving, heart-felt speech. But given his undoubted intelligence, it did not go far enough. Not nearly far enough. Politics again? I suppose. However, I am sick of “politics.” Not as sick as the parents of the dead children, though. Bet on it. What a tragedy this country has become.
AG
And here we have the whole “rating” thing in all of its post-dKos glory. Recently a “0” was a troll rating. Now apparently it’s a “1” that rates a troll.
So…does IL Jim P think that I am some kind of troll?
What is a troll, exactly?
Well…Wikipedia says:
Let’s take it from the top:
Lemme see.
“…extraneous or off-topic?”
No. An ad for knock-off high fashion shoes would be off-topic, and something about the state of the NFL would be extraneous.
“Inflammatory?” Trying to figure out where our president is really coming from is “inflammatory?” Spoken very gently and in real wonder? Not in my book.
<u.Certainly</u> not off-topic.
A ;politely phrased question? ad I called him a fucking liar, that would have been “intentionally provocative.” But my question…my polite and sincere question…stands.
My own was due to this:
I did think carefully about it, and changed my 0 to a 1. It was the comment that is troll-rate-worthy.
Distilled into mediaspeak.
Channel surfing before bed, I heard this lede from the NYC area local NBC newscast (Delayed because of the football game. Italics mine.):
I watched that speech. He did not mention any “everywhere” as far as I understand the meaning of that phrase. He was speaking only about the U.S. Now he certainly cannot protect every family in the world from random violence…he can barely make that promise believable in his own country….but he certainly has it in his power to promise something like that in terms of U.S. military strikes.
He didn’t.
End of story.
He probably cannot make that promise and back it up, and he parses his words well enough to be extremely clear on that point without actually painting himself into any number of corners. But the media? A whole ‘nother can of implicated lies. Lies that the general public swallows whole like so many poisonous
White HouseWhite Castle sliders.And there is my point in a nutshell.
I got slammed and troll-rated into near oblivion for quoting Osama bin Laden’s eminently sensible statement about the same idea in a previous comment. Here it is again for all the troll raters in the audience. (Go ahead. Do it some more. Troll rate this site into mediocrity if you are allowed to do so. You only hasten what seems to be the inevitable in this country. May as well get it over with.)
Go ahead. Troll rate me again.
Soon you’ll be able to change the name of the site to dKos Jr.
Wouldn’t that be special!!
Hey!!!
Maybe we could reanimate John Edwards again!!!
Later…
AG
This is a reminder to folks that you should not troll-rate comments simply because you disagree with them. If you feel someone is crossing some line of civility or decency, please consider issuing a warning (2) and explaining why before you jump to troll-rating.
When you troll-rate, you risk auto-banning users, so it should not be done lightly. Thank you.
I had initially troll-rated based on the gratuitous garbage about Obama and international issues. I raised it from 0 to 2. The comment was offensive and troll-ratable, however.