Anderson Cooper’s Charlotte Web: Random Thoughts–
There goes the Robert E Lee, part 2
There were many mistakes in Charlotte. The permit should not have been given. It sounds like a first amendment requirement but Constitution also prohibits discrimination and guarantees equal rights to all to pursue happiness. This was not speech, but action directed at harming others and discriminatory action. We can deny the permits to intended marches against other races. I am not a fan of Scientology but I have declined to attend and /or speak at public rallies against them.
Think how different it would be if CNN, Vice and Anderson Cooper never paid any attention. What if Vice had not done those pre-interviews? What if the media was not there? What if no one showed up to protest the protest? What if they marched, but no one watched and no one listened. Instead the media gave them exactly what they wanted and share blame for what become a predictable occurrence. Bring out the media, and everyone performs.
And yet I remember in 1977, in Skokie, Illinois, when the Nazis got a permit to parade. Skokie was home to Holocaust survivors. The ACLU advised, as I do now, stay in your homes and ignore them. But a Jewish congregation announced “that’s what we did in Germany, they march here –we fight. “ The media showed up to film this extension of World War II but when the American Nazis reached Skolkie they chickened out They said they had made their point by getting the permit and getting media attention. They said theyno longer needed to march.
One could argue that the threat of violence worked, but I don’t believe that violence is the answer ever. Violence was used at Kent State and on protesters throughout the 60’s. But it s did seem like at the start the anti-protesters were doing a good imitation of the movie Casablanca by trying to out sing them. And if you’re going to show up – – that really was the right response. As some might attack attacked, the rest was pretty foreseeable.
The Pres. is clearly a proven racist. It is reflected in his tenant choices, payroll discrimination, his wall, his tweets and his actions, and specially including his fabricated story about General Pershing executing 49 Mormon terrorists with bullets dipped in pig blood and advocating this is what we should do. It is obvious he is obsessed with destroying every legacy of the past president because he is black. It is obvious he conspired with Russia. His son would not have acted without his approval, and in fact before the election Trump shouted in substance, “Russia, if you have any of her emails release them.” When he said he cares more about the people in Pittsburgh then Paris, what has Paris got to do with global warming? The city was just the location of the conference. It was not an Accord to solely benefit Paris.
And some part of the Charlotte violence rests on the fact that during Trump’s election he advocated it to his followers to take strike those who would oppose him. I still cannot believe it–what were people thinking when they voted? Just how bad was the dislike of the Clintons?
Yet there is a point I must re Charlotte admit Trump got right, but what he got wrong was this was not the time to discuss it. But it is true when you start destroying monuments where do you stop? Washington and Jefferson did have slaves and our flag flew once over a nation that allowed slavery. And while I agree naming a school Robert E Lee is not a good idea, neither is destroying the artifacts of history because we can’t change history and we have to learn from it. Do we erase Pres. Truman’s name because of Hiroshima? Or Pres. Roosevelt because of putting Japanese in camps? Anyone could make that argument, and there would be two sides. I think the best thing to do with those statutes is put them in a museum. Those who want to see the work but viewing won’t be forced on anyone. Education should be the direction, not the destruction of marble or cloth.
As stated in an 1860 essay: “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.” The author was none other than Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and escaped slave.
I don’t blame Germany for banning the Nazis emblems given their history, but our country for good or bad believes in all speech should be free. See my earlier http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/there-goes-the-robert-e-lee/. But as I said this more than speech.
I am not so sure Tromp in his 1st speech was referring to the Nazis when he said there were good people on both sides. But as he rambles in angry screams at the media, sometimes you don’t know what he’s saying. He could have been referring to the Nazis as having some good people. He also could have been saying that some of the people who opposed taking down the monuments as he did are good people.
I, myself, as stated, think they should be moved to museums so one can choose to view them are not. And I don’t think that makes me bad.
Check out these monuments: General Amherst High School), Amherst, Massachusetts (location of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Hampshire College and Amherst College), Amherst, New Hampshire, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Amherst, New York and Amherst County, Virginia. Who is General Jeffery Amherst? He is the military officer who gave the blankets with smallpox to the Indians. Are current American Indians going to demand his name be removed from history and all buildings?
I would say leave the Amherst name but teach what he did. The same holds true about racism. “Roots” should be shown on television every year. It should be shown in schools. Every generation must watch a Holocaust movie.
The north at one time had slavery. The demise of the South was ultimately necessary to end slavery, even at the price of other aspects of its unique culture. You can see it all in Gone With The Wind. There is the good, the bad and the ugly. Was Robert E Lee fighting for just slavery, or did he respond to a call from the culture he was raised in. To understand that Washington and Jefferson had slaves is to remember the nature and beliefs of the times that allowed it. I understand it was hard for General Lee to choose between the United States and the home of his family and friends he decided to protect. Even Pres. Lincoln: could forgive and say reunite. And remember our flag flew over the carpet baggers who raped and plundered the South in the war’s aftermath. Certainly an argument was there that good people were on both sides. Not everyone who has some admiration for Robert E Lee is bad. There were even people in the South who believed in the South’s culture except for slavery.
Even if assume they were built in a wish for return of evil side of Dixie, that to is part of history. Put them in a museum.
The real problem is a racism and slavery have existed since the start of mankind, and like serial killers, women seller’s and serial killers don’t expect them to disappear. There will always be some people who fall into the slots just as 0 always be tyrants and those who worship tyrants.
Unfortunately, as to the bad side of the South we are not necessarily so different given who we elected president and that one poll reflected that 38% of Americans would bring back slavery. 48% said another do not believe in evolution and want for nation only that old time religion.
But Anderson Cooper’s uproar is really more a situation of the chickens coming home to roost. Trump’s twitters have delivered so many lies and craziness everyone is ready to pounce on every word. The pendulum always wins too far, especially in this case with Tromp swinging it. Further, Trump is not presidential, and does not know how to communicate. Whatever he tried to say was lost in his shouts of “Fake News.” And the possible overkill by Cooper. Trump is attacked for saying he wanted some time to examine because he has opened his mouth before without doing so? Hobson choice?
Yet he did not need time to say Nazis, racism, violence is wrong and we will prosecute those responsible.
What should have been said by media was this was really not the time for the president to talk about statutes and whether there were good people on both sides of the issue of the statutes, if that was what he intended. It was a time to deny and censor racism and violence.
Anderson Cooper attacks him also for saying justice will occur whether or not you call it terrorism or murder. So what? The fact is he was condemning it regardless which label you give it. I myself have been rather appalled by how many crazy acts are called terrorism by the media when they are just isolated actions of some lunatics wanting to be a terrorist copycat. For many, they are just murderers and we give them an undeserving reward to suggest that they were doing their acts in furtherance of some cause. Cooper is becoming a reflection of Fox TV for the anti-Ytumps. Although Cooper has to be credited for a lot of good digging when Tromp does lie, even trying to save the nation is not approval for exaggeration or propaganda. Loading a panel of all blacks to discuss Trumps speech did not really seem very fair. Don’t adapt the techniques of tyrants. Bill Maher on his show advocated Demorcrats should lie like Republicans. Wrong.
I’m not saying with absolute certainty this time Tromp got a bad deal but I didn’t think there was anything in Trump’s original speech from which Anderson Cooper and others could absolutely conclude he was praising Nazis beliefs. It could be warranted but it is also possible Trump’s own inadequacies made it ambiguous. It was sort of the chickens coming home to roost. He has lied so much and made such ridiculous tweets there is probably nothing that he can say at this time. It’s too bad that he is so megalomaniac and lacks ability to really help this country by resigning. Even Nixon realized that final truth and did the right thing.
Come on Mr. Pres., help us out.
To Mr. Cooper: Good night and Good luck.
