241 replies to this topic

[fatguyaz]

got this from my cousin:

With less than a week left until the election, most of you have already voted (good for you!) and I know I'm not going to change your mind on who you choose to vote for. The reason I want to send this is to share with you my up-close and personal experience of the divide that is growing between Americans. I believe this election is not just about the issues...it has also touched on something much deeper: Fear/Ignorance/Hate vs. Hope/Change. And that's what this election has boiled down to for some people as this video clearly shows...



Before I went inside the arena to hear McCain speak with my friend Jill, I stood outside with other Obama supporters who were standing (completely lawfully of course) near the line of people going into the event which was free and open to the public. The Obama supporters were holding pro-Obama signs, and one person had a lifesize cardboard figure of Obama. The man holding the camera shooting this video was standing right next to me.

Some things you shouldn't miss on the video:

-- The family at the beginning with the young girl acting like a monkey. You have to listen carefully, but what the young girl says, referring to the cutout of Obama, is: "A monkey president. A monkey from Tarzan. That's a monkey from Tarzan."


-- The man punching the head of the Obama cutout referring to him as "Osama"

--A man telling me "You ain't no real American"

-- The man calling the Obama figure: "Hussein. President Hussein" (followed by his wife saying to us: "You make me sick").

-- The woman saying (referring to the Obama cutout): "He needs a rag on his head."

-- The woman saying to us (the Obama supporters): "You need turbans."

-- The so-called Christian man saying: "The important thing is God may not be on my side, but Satan is on your side."

--The little girl saying "This world is coming to an end for you people"

What the camera didn't capture was a man who came up to myself and a friend who said: "You're white. Why are you voting for Obama?" My friend was quite startled and responded with: "Well, sir, I'm not a racist." This set him off. And when I say "set him off" - I mean that we ended up having to call 911.

The camera also missed a man with "Jesus Christ" on his t-shirt who came up and said: "Obama is the closest thing yet to the Anti-Christ." (I don't attend church regularly anymore, but I know for sure such hatred is not what Jesus Christ was all about.)

The whole experience shocked and saddened me. The saddest was the young girl who was clearly being brought up as a racist. A close second were the so-called Christians citing their religious beliefs as they spewed hate and intolerance.

So why am I sending this? Because I think people should see the ugly underbelly of America. And this was in DENVER! Not the deep South, DENVER! I thought such people were few and far between, especially here in my hometown..My eyes were certainly opened.

I'm optimistic that America will one day be the true UNITED States of America that our forefathers wanted. Hopefully we will stop being divided into "real" Americans and "anti-Americans".


If you've recieved this email and are voting for Obama, good for you. If you're voting for McCain, good for you. I know that if you're voting for McCain, you're doing it because you agree with him on the issues like his background, etc. If you were voting for McCain for the reasons of the people on the video, I wouldn't be associating myself with you!!! BUT if any of you happen to run into McCain supporters who are like the people in the video, please don't stand by silently. Call them on their ignorance...particularly their racism. Whether it's Obama or McCain who wins in 11 days, fair-minded people like you and I know America is FAR better than the ugliness shown on the video.

[donald]

wow

[raubhimself]

There's a video on YouTube from Bethlehem, PA that seems to be pretty much the same thing... sad really.

[mikemfer]

I saw a few things like this too:




Of course, those are edited to show the total wingnuts and the worst stuff. Check out what happened to this guy:

http://link.brightco...bctid1866657225

[eraser]

It freaks me out sometimes about how fearful, angry, and ignorant some folks are and how that manifests itself.

I see a lot of the stuff that was mentioned online. It's kind of accepted because people are semi-anonymous and have that cloak of obscured identity to hide behind.

Seeing that behavior in actual human beings, though, is pretty weird and disappointing and super-gross ...

Every so often, I stop into FreeRepublic.com, which is a pretty right-wing new website / message board (think of it as TheShizz for fans of Joe Arpaio!). I started dropping in just to get viewpoints that are different from mine because I think that's important. It's pretty much a haven for all of the hateful, angry stuff that folks are spewing.

I dropped by Stormfront.org, which is like the White Nationalist catch-all message board - it's usually unintentionally hilarious. Like a current post, asking "What's your favorite White meal?" (Answers included, fried chicken, a big roasted turkey, and someone opined, "HAM, of course!")

What's funny is that somehow I find Stormfront, a website for folks who would love to see mudpeople such as myself exterminated or otherwise banished from the face of the earth, less hostile than FreeRepublic.

Maybe it's because the Stormfronters wear their (irrational) views on their sleeve instead of the barely veiled racism that some (not all - and I hope not many) McCain/Palin voters exhibit.

[Jacki O.]

I dropped by Stormfront.org, which is like the White Nationalist catch-all message board - it's usually unintentionally hilarious. Like a current post, asking "What's your favorite White meal?" (Answers included, fried chicken, a big roasted turkey, and someone opined, "HAM, of course!")

That is awesome.



Surprise, surprise, people in America are racist? What?

McCain has tried to run the negative aspects of his campaign the way Bush ran his in 2004 by scaring people. Bush did it with his whole "terrorists are going to get us" thing and McCain is doing it with "democrats are going to get us"

I guess you could say that the dems are doing it too, but it seems more scary to me to see another Republican administration, similar to the last one, in the white house starting World War 3 with Iran, than what McCain is saying will happen if Obama gets elected.

[degrae]

I will never support American lives being extinguished without all of America understanding what they are being told to accomplish, and certainly not without their understanding of their sacrifice. I cannot reward the Republican Party for it's contribution to the last eight years, not personally, not Locally, and certainly not Globaly.(Sp?).
Our resources (recourses) are being squandered without accountability. Our legal system is a shambles of the most dramatic. Our freedoms are a small percentage of what our forefathers intended for us, and so I will only participate so far as it helps my family, my neighbor, my heroes and the people that also always believed the sales job of personal freedoms as was necessary to get good Americans to fight in the first place. We Don't need to fight anymore, we are established. If everyone in the world felt that way there would be nothing to fight about.

[eraser]

What's funny about the right-wing (and places like FreeRepublic) is just how their anger and rhetoric is so entrenched in fear, which is the exact opposite of the image of America being all about bravery and courage and fireworks and whatnot.

That's so Raven and not so America.

[Jacki O.]

That's so Raven and not so America.

totes


it's Monday! Is anyone super excited that this election will be over soon???!??!?!?

[jomama]

What's sad is that after election day, people won't keep up with trying to make a difference.

We still need to make our voices heard!

I am not saying I will be any better, I won't be, but it is very difficult when nobody else cares anymore after tomorrow.

[donald]

I will be less inclined to want change until I find out how our new prez handles things, but I understand where you are coming from

[fatguyaz]

What's sad is that after election day, people won't keep up with trying to make a difference.

We still need to make our voices heard!

I am not saying I will be any better, I won't be, but it is very difficult when nobody else cares anymore after tomorrow.

I think the problem is that folks will say " Well...i voted. What else can i do?"

But really... what kind of movement is there when there is no election coming up? I know there are things that people can do on an individual basis, but who does that?

[eraser]

http://thisfuckingelection.com/

[jomama]

What's sad is that after election day, people won't keep up with trying to make a difference.

We still need to make our voices heard!

I am not saying I will be any better, I won't be, but it is very difficult when nobody else cares anymore after tomorrow.

I think the problem is that folks will say " Well...i voted. What else can i do?"

But really... what kind of movement is there when there is no election coming up? I know there are things that people can do on an individual basis, but who does that?

I guess you are right, I just have this feeling that we can still keep doing something, but I guess that's being a little too optimistic. I am not following through on my thinking before typing today.

[Jacki O.]

What's sad is that after election day, people won't keep up with trying to make a difference.

We still need to make our voices heard!

I am not saying I will be any better, I won't be, but it is very difficult when nobody else cares anymore after tomorrow.

I think the problem is that folks will say " Well...i voted. What else can i do?"

But really... what kind of movement is there when there is no election coming up? I know there are things that people can do on an individual basis, but who does that?

I guess you are right, I just have this feeling that we can still keep doing something, but I guess that's being a little too optimistic. I am not following through on my thinking before typing today.

ah!
I agree with you, there is always more we can do. We can write letters to encourage our elected representatives to push for more change or at least let them know what their constituates want. We can continue to learn more about how our politicians get into power, what there agendas are and where their money is coming from.

and there will more smaller local elections in the coming years and we need to be aware of who is getting elected on the local levels and the immediate impacts their legislation and power can have on us.

If Obama gets elected, it doesn't automatically make everything golden, it's not a reset button, its the same Washington DC system where money matters most.

I think this election and Bush's regime has made me more aware of our impact on the world and our position on the world stage, we have to keep being aware of how the way we live affects the rest of the people in the world. Good and bad.