The Right Incites Violence

Massive, Violent, Racist, TEA Party Protest

On March 23, President Obama signed his Health Care Bill into law. A day later the news was wall to wall with coverage about the hate filled speech and threats against members of Congress. I know it has been a long year of debating health care but I was still left looking for answers on what was now actually law. I would have liked to hear more about the government taking over the student loan program or the Ready Reserve Corps. Why does that stuff have to be apart of Health Care Reform?

I quickly got over my frustration with Health Care and its process and began to focus on the problems with the TEA Party. Reportedly, during the protest before the bill was signed, Rep. Jon Lewis was spit on and called racial slurs and Rep. Barney Frank was called a “faggot”. There is no place for this type of rhetoric or behavior and I heard a few Republican leaders denounce it. Unfortunately after a day or two of coverage from the media of these events the reporting began to escalate.

The far right was inciting violence and the media was looking for the next act of Domestic Terrorism. Sarah Palin was being scrutinized for saying reload and putting targets over Democratic regions on her Facebook page. An anti government militia in Michigan was arrested for plotting to assassinate police officers. Rep. Tom Perriello, of Virginia, brother discovered that the gas line connecting a propane tank to an outdoor grill at his home near Charlottesville, Va., had been severed. This came a few days after a Tea Party member posted the brothers address instead of Perriello’s.

These actions are the sad reality in America when people band together for mutual reasons. If they don’t get there way, some are just unable to emotionally control themselves and feel compelled to lash out at the those they feel responsible. This is a problem and should be handled accordingly by local law enforcement. What is also a problem is the way the media has handled this the past week. They have simply ignored the same problems on the left. Eugene Robinson a columnist for the Washington Post wrote on Tuesday that it is hard to identify the left with violence while in contrast the right poses a real danger to society and is on the verge of domestic terrorism. He also says the media that says there are “crazies on both sides” is simply not true.

I couldn’t believe my eyes and decided to do a little research to see if there was any truth in what Mr. Robinson was writing. I had to look back one day and about 30 miles from my house to find Norman Leboon, a registered democrat and Obama donor. Leboon fired a couple of bullets into Eric Cantor’s campaign office in Richmond Virginia. He recorded a bunch of rambling video threats against a few politicians, media pundits and even the president. Through these videos you will see that he is clearly liberal and wiling to commit violence acts for the sake of his personal feelings.

Karl Rove spoke at Claremont College and a bomb threat was phoned in. At the Republican convention crowds of liberals tried to tip over a bus of boy scouts. They also dropped sandbags from highway overpasses and used spray cans on Republican delegates. In Pittsburgh, last year an anti-capitalist group marched through the streets and vandalized public and private property while injuring police officers.

My point here is not to show that one side is worse than the other. This inexcusable stuff has been going on for years and it is not limited to one side or the other. One must resist the urge to argue that one side must be wrong because they do bad things. Both sides should strongly denounce these actions and the media should report them isolated incidents before blaming an entire ideology or group.