Holocaust Museum Shooting

First of all I want to express my condolences to all those affected by the murder/attempted-suicide at the US Holocaust Museum yesterday. The family of the slain security guard (an African-American), as well as all the Holocaust survivors who volunteer and work there who must have been so traumatized by the sound of bullets ringing out.

This is a time for empathy and sorrow and mourning - however the cornered/wounded animal that is the Republican Party - particularly its wingnut wing - has to make political hay of it. I hate to give Fox News moron Glenn Beck any more attention than he already gets, but here are Beck's words on the shooting:



For those who can't stomach sitting through this whole nonsense, I can't blame you. To paraphrase, he blames political correctness, the election of a black President and liberalism in general for this attack. In sum - by making racial identity a part of the discussion (first Black US president, pending first Hispanic Supreme Court justice in Sonia Sotomayor), it is wrecking the comfortable little cocoon white supremecists live in, making them feel threatened; and as such, people who heretofore might have felt comfortable just spouting off their idiocy in their own little cave, or perhaps on a hate-speech-based blog or two, are now being driven to desperate measures in order to be seen and heard.

Gee - sorry for recognizing that the United States - and indeed Canada, and all of North America -- is a land of different races, and that this world is one in which we must all get along. It is tragic that some people have such poor skills of understanding and coping that they cannot adapt to the new realities that minorities are now (gasp!) visible, and no longer willing to be subjugated; but it is a cause people have lost their lives for all through history, and unfortunately I doubt that will stop completely in our entire world's quest for that elusive 'more perfect union'. I fail to see in the long run how increased awareness of minorities somehow creates this 'boiling pot' of which Beck speaks. Awareness breeds tolerance, and I will not apologize for the left trying to teach respect to those who would use the murder of a minority security guard in a place built with the express purpose of remembering perhaps the biggest act of racism in the history of the world, to push forward an inappropriate agenda.

Let me make one thing clear, Mr. Beck; a simple, everyday man of average-to-less intellect as this James von Brunn sounds, would not see a black president, the tolerance of other races and religions, etc. as a threat, unless those in positions of responsibility, such as yourself, tell him to. Perhaps years of hearing that Blacks are taking his jobs, Jews are wrecking the banks in which he keeps his money, and that the Muslims are coming to attack his homeland, are more to blame than the fact that these people have the nerve to exist.