We! The People Webzine: Get Angry, Get Active by Becky A. Coats

Get Angry, Get Active

by Becky A. Coats
January 23, 2007

Well, it has started! How many of you are receiving hate-filled, fear mongering emails detailing a litany of lies regarding potential Democrat Presidential candidates? Raise your hands! From Hillary supposedly defending the Black Panthers during college, to Barrack being an Islamofascist, I am getting them all. I really loved the one about Senator Obama. It attempted to counter compare Obama to Thomas Jefferson, who did happen to own a copy of the Koran. The author went on and on about Jefferson's dedication to the copy of the Bible he kept on his bed stand and read every night. Of course, he failed to mention that Jefferson treated his Koran with the same respect he had for his Bible. He cut out the parts he did not like of both books! I really hate to remind the author of that particularly nasty piece of propaganda that as wonderfully as Mr. Jefferson reads and as good as he was for the newly founded United States of America, he is not exactly the "go to guy" in matters of faith or morality.

The amount of hate displayed along with the picking and choosing of facts out of context and twisting those facts into nothing resembling truth in order to cause fear sounds an awful like Karl Rove tactics to me. These things sound unbelievably believable! Frankly, they anger me to my very core and I want to know the name of the little weasel whose job it is to make up this stuff and send it out into cyberspace! In which dark, dank, West Wing basement office is the Bush administration's cyber phantom lurking? Stay with me folks! I think I am having my first experience with ESP! Quiet please. Yes. There it is … the office in the basement. Yes. Yes. It is getting clearer … just a chair in the middle of the room with a utility light directly overhead … clearer … someone sitting in the chair with a laptop! Oh no! It's the Cyber sleuth Grinch, Dick Cheney!

All kidding aside, my friends, the real target of these vicious emails is not the already indoctrinated Republican believer who walks around in a daze bowing at the utterance of G-Dubya's name. The perpetrators' bull's-eye is you and I and their purpose is to plant the seeds of doubt and fear. The truly sad consequence of this kind of obnoxious, so-termed Swift Boat attack is that every now and then, one of our own innocent, everyday Democrats gets caught in the cross fire and is wounded.

A visit to a local Democrat blog site today was a testament to the damage that can be done. One blogger is passionate about supporting Senator Obama for President and another is equally adamant about not supporting him. Upon reading the supporter's first entry, the non-supporter replied sighting untrue statements contained in the latest attack email regarding the Senator's views of a particular minority community. Each accused of other of Swiftboating and hitting below the belt. The supporter sniped back and the non-supporter ended up storming off in a huff. As it turns out, both bloggers are members of the same minority. However, the supporter did his homework and knew his facts. The non-supporter is getting his faux-facts from emails that are succeeding in their mission to divide us … to make us fear and doubt each other. Of course, the Conspiracy Theorist in me is screaming that the non-supporter was, in fact, an insidious Republican plant! Sorry! I cannot tell you who … my ESP must be on the fritz!

The truth is this, it does not matter from where or whom a false attack is launched. Nor does it matter which Democrat candidate the attack is against. From now until the 2008 Presidential election, there will be attacks flying through cyber space and over the airwaves coming from all directions. The onslaught of negativity will be unyielding and each of us will feel moments of truly nauseating disgust at thought of having to vote for any of the available candidates from any party. The people we thought most honorable may well seem less than who we thought them to be. This has been a fact of American political life for many years now. However, I do not believe that it must remain a fact. Indeed, I have hope.

Democratic Speaker of the House, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi has vowed to usher in a new era of civility and ethics. So far, under her leadership, the Democrats have faired pretty well … as have the Republicans who have chosen to join in bipartisan deliberation. Let us foster this new era by doing two things. One, do your homework. Learn the facts about each potential candidate in both parties. Google them and read major newspapers' articles about their records. Go to their websites and read/listen to their speeches. When lies or half-truths are told, you will easily recognize them and hopefully, write letters to the editor, to the candidate and to Speaker Pelosi voicing your displeasure and setting the record straight. Two, answer every hateful email with a nicely worded rebuttal containing the facts and info on how they, too can look up the information.

It may take a little more time than you are used to giving to your country, but the hope of ending the practice of the negative ads and emails by actively speaking the truth is worth the effort. Don't just sit there … go get active!