When Mayor Nutter was inaugurated as the mayor of Philadelphia over seven years ago, he celebrated at the afterparty by busting out the Sugar Hill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight, which was certainly something most politicians would not do.
He was at it again over the July 4th holiday:
The performance is a bit more polished now.
That’s how we roll in Philly. But, down in South Carolina, things are a bit different.
The South Carolina legislature is expected on Monday to take up the fate of the Confederate battle flag that flies on the State House grounds, responding to demands that it be removed after the June 17 massacre of nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston…
…The debate will take place amid tight security after episodes of vandalism and hostile altercations between the flag’s supporters and opponents. Separately, law enforcement officials have been investigating threats against certain legislators.
The revival of the flag issue has also led to lawmakers’ being besieged by calls and emails, many of them aggressive.
“I’ve been threatened (non-physically) more this week than my whole life combined,” Representative Neal A. Collins, a Republican of Pickens County, posted on Twitter on Wednesday. “Civil discourse anyone?”
Two Americas, the future and the past.
Civil discourse? hahahahahahahaha! Not anymore!
Everything is amped up now, and sitting down to have a calm, reasoned discussion about anything is a thing of the past. People are emboldened by the anonymity of Internet discourse and have seen the likes of armed police officers and armed “peace” citizens winning out over those who are simply existing in their own places. Quiet doesn’t win anymore. Force wins. Bullies win.
Except we cannot back down on this fight over the right to eliminate hatred and racism. Once the collapse of the wall begins, we cannot let them rebuild it. We have to support those who are breaking down the barriers, give time, votes, and money to those who will do right.
We’ve won some tough battles; let’s not let them win the war.
Did the United States ever have civil discourse?
I think that particular cow left the barn with the unveiling of the Southern Strategy, let alone what happened when the New Right (Buckley calling Mandela a terrorist) and religious right (baby killers!) entered the fray.
And only a terribly cynical and/or myopic person would describe the state of politics pre-American Civil Rights as civil. Unless they mean civil in the same way that an ostentatious gala attended to by the respectable upper crust yet staffed by slaves who got a motivational whipping hours prior to ensure that they’d be on their best behavior was civil.
Civil discourse is pretty hard to imagine concerning an issue that involved the brutal enslavement of millions of Americans and the hundred-plus years of terrorism that followed. Never mind the whole war that was fought over the issue.
The thing is, it’s much easier for ten bullies to quietly oppress one kid than one bully to oppress one kid. And it’s even easier for one hundred bullies to do the same. If they distribute the work of the intimidation and domination stochastically and evenly then any individual bully doesn’t have to do anything more evil than ‘I bumped into him extra hard and caused him to spill his food’ or ‘I called him an embarrassing nickname three times last year’.
To a superficial observer, that looks like civility even if the effect on the victim is the same.
Technology(in this case e-mails, twitter, mass media etc.) keeps making things better and better till they are terrible. At least that’s the way it looks from here. Sometimes I long for the days of writing a letter to express my views to a politico. Something about the time it took caused one to measure his words carefully.
Raw Story Ukraine tackles graft with new US-trained police force
[Observer: “Meanwhile, the Georgian government has indicted Saakashvili on charges related to the violent dispersal of protests and other malfeasance.”]
dKos, Shaun King: In the first 5 days of July – American police killed 20 people. …
The hidden point here is if the Federal Government does not SOON act against those that are trying to destroy it. The average citizen will rise up in it’s defense and it will not be clean or neat.
The average citizen is getting more frustrated every day with the fantasy of the now past called “the American dream.” When you take away hope, after taking away the right to vote. What is to stop the people from rising up against those that they see as their oppressors and or future murders?
For the record, Collins has declared as a Yes.
Post and Courier reports SC Senate passes it 37-3. House tomorrow. Other news media has some confusion about whether there was a third reading.