Obama Backers Find Burned Cross on Front Lawn

[DeeDeeNY]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003888424

Obama Backers Find Burned Cross on Front Lawn

Published: November 06, 2008 11:35 PM ET
NEWARK A family who had supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign emerged from their home in the northwestern New Jersey town of Hardwick Thursday morning to find the charred remnants of a 6-foot wooden cross on their front lawn.

Pieces of a homemade bedsheet banner reading "President Obama , Victory '08," which had been stolen from the yard the night before, also were found, leading investigators to believe the banner had been wrapped around the cross before it was set afire. Lt. Gerald Lewis of the New Jersey State Police said his agency is treating the incident as a bias crime.
...
Grewal said his 8-year-old daughter, Arianna, spotted the banner wrapped around the burnt cross as they walked toward their car to drive to school. "She saw it, that's what bothered me the most," Grewal said Thursday. "You can imagine the types of questions she was asking. It was very tough to explain."

[Generic Other]

1. Liberal white Democrats need to prepare themselves

All of us are going to experience the racism and hate in a way we have never been forced to before. We will witness vcariously what African Americans have suffered silently for so long.

:mad:

[JaneQPublic]

4. Expect membership increases in militias and other such groups (nt)

[vi5]

2. In Newark?

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of place in NJ where I could envision this happening. Particularly in the more rural areas. But Newark? What the hell.

[LiberalEsto]

3. It was Hardwick

in northwestern NJ

[vi5]

5. Oh, then that makes PERFECT sense....

That's exactly the area I would have expected something like this to happen. I saw the Newark by-line which is what confused me.

Yeah, I'm halfway between Newark and Hardwick along 80, but going out that way towards PA it's like a totally different world.

[DeeDeeNY]

6. And here's a post from yesterday on vandalism in Western PA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3587079

[Blue For You]

7. Neil Young responds to incident:

Northern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said
Northern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Northern man...

[Alter Ego]

8. Scum.

All of them. Shameless, racist, xenophobic, horribly ignorant fascist scum.

[DeeDeeNY]

9. Yes. Absolutely.

[bdamomma]

17. exactly.

we have our own homegrown terrorists right in the US.

[MedleyMisty]

10. So - when are the insults to all people who live in New Jersey going to start?

After all, if this had happened in certain states every single person who lives in that state would be lambasted for it.

[DeeDeeNY]

11. This type of attitude really has no relation to geography

There are people like this all over the country, including in my blue state of NY.

[Alter Ego]

13. And in MA, where I was asked a month ago why I was voting for

"that n***er."

[surrealAmerican]

12. I hope they find the people who did this.

[rebel with a cause]

14. the covert is becoming overt......

and those that denied racism still existed will be forced to acknowledge its existence. Those of us who have lived with fear of what would happen to those we love if one of these hateful freaks lost control can tell you that it is not fun living like this. And I have only lived with this fear for half of my life, so I can only imagine what those who have lived with it from birth are emotionally scarred by it. But they were brave enough to stand up and have their votes counted so Barack Obama could be elected president of these United States, and they knew this reaction would come. Heck, I knew this reaction would come.

We all went into this struggle knowing that we were putting ourselves in danger, and yet we felt it worth it. Those that have put themselves and their children in danger (because of their ethnic identity) to stand up and cast their votes for this man to be president should be looked at with respect and admiration because they knew they would be the ones to pay the price for this historical moment. Those of us who are white can go on with our lives and hope for the best, but we do not carry the burden of being the target of these monsters that hate and harm in the name of their color and god. JMHO

[DeeDeeNY]

15. I've become keenly more aware of racism the past year

And your last sentence is exactly right, including calling these people monsters.

[rebel with a cause]

16. I have been very aware of the racism because for the last thirty some odd years

I have been the mother of multi-racial children. They grew up being called every racial epithet there pretty much is. There were so many the racist pricks had to chose from. My daughter had it hard, my son had it harder. We moved from the one town to another one which had more diversity only to find it also had a strong KKK presence. Only as adults did they finally get to the area's one spot with more diversity and more liberal outlook, and still it has a strong backward racist population at it's core. I don't know what will become of us during these trying times, but I only hope that we as individuals survive unscathed and as a nation we come out of this unitied and not as enemies.

[DeeDeeNY]

18. This sequence from an earlier DU thread offer a glimmer of hope

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7804230