DO NOT BE SILENT (A Call For Protest)

[OneAngryDemocrat]

Do not remain silent.

Conservatives will not speak out.

They will blame the lone, solitary, shooter...

They will blame liberal society...

They will blame anything and everything but modern-day conservatism, which preaches that liberals and democrats are the bona fide enemies of America and a threat to the nation's very existence.

And as long as that is the case, the bodies will continue to pile up.

And that leaves it up to us to speak out.

We need not mince words - it is vital that we speak clearly and succinctly but most importantly, firmly.

Conservatism must evolve.

It must change.

To believe otherwise is to help pass around the nails for the next coffin in which the next liberal democrat will be buried in.

No one was out there speaking about the radical right-wing elements that threaten our civil society until Janet Napolitano issued a DHS report warning about extremists that might resort to violence - a report which conservatives across the country demanded to be immediately rescinded. Now that we have seen a series of right-wing assassinations take place, the original DHS report looks, in hindsight, to have been very timely and prescient.

We have seen Jim David Adkisson open fire upon the congregation of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church with a sawed-off shotgun, killing two, simply because he opposed the all-inclusive nature of the church, and of the church's liberal teachings. Adkisson wrote in a letter which he assumed would be his last, "I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til (sic) the cops kill me.” His hatred for his fellow Americans could not be contained: “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”

James von Brunn, a radical right-winger from Maryland sought to turn the nation's Holocaust Museum into a symbol for his particular brand of racism, when he went there with the intent to kill blacks and Jews, as an example to the rest of white America to emulate. Luckily for those visitors inside of the museum, the first man von Brunn decided to open fire upon was a black man who had the ability to return the favor, and so no one besides than the very heroic Stephen T. Johns died that day.

Shawna Forde, and two other members of the anti-immigrant Minutman group which she founded, the ''Minutemen American Defense,'' decided that one way to finance her burgeoning organization was to dress up as law enforcement agents, and to rob Mexican immigrants. When Shawna and her compatriots illegally entered the home of Raul Flores, and demanded money, the head of the family ordered the trio to leave, prompting the radical right-wingers to put a bullet into the head of little 9 year old Brisenia Flores, and into the head of her father. Unluckily for the conservative killers, Brisenia's mother was able to barricade herself in her bedroom, where she kept a handgun, and she was able to keep at bay her would be assassins until the real police arrived.

Richard Poplawski opened fire on police officers during a domestic disturbance call, in April of 2009, killing three of them.

Why?

The 23 year-old right-winger feared that the President was poised to take away his hand guns.

Just a few days after that shoot-out, two sheriff’s deputies in northern Florida were shot and killed by Joshua Cartwright who later was fatally shot by other deputies. The reason, according to Cartright's wife, was because Joshua "believed that the US Government was conspiring against him," and, according to her, he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.

The list of victims from right-wing terror does not stop there.

It goes on, and on.

Doctor George Tiller.

Arkansas Democratic Chairman Bill Gwatney.

Congresswoman Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson shooting are but the latest victims of this madness.

Hours before the shooting spree in Arizona which took 6 lives including that of a Federal Judge and a 9 year old little girl, Christina Greene (born on 9-11-2001), Representative Peter King, a conservative Republican and the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, made clear his intention to use taxpayers' money - our money - to investigate the radicalization of American Muslims, claiming in his zeal to persecute American Muslims, that "These are very legitimate hearings."

But since the day little Christina was brought into this world, on that fateful September morning, the number of victims who have been laid to rest due to domestic jihad pales when compared to those who have been killed by conservative terrorists during little Christina's short tenure on this earth.

For moderate conservatives to hide these blood-thirsty radicals within their ranks behind the legitimate dissent of the anti-abortion lobby, or of that of any other conservative movement, be it anti-immigration, or advocates for 2d Amendment Rights, and to deny any responsibility for help in fostering these lunatic's bizarre views, doesn't help the conservative lobbies attain their aims and goals...

It, instead, helps the radical conservative terrorists attain theirs.

We should be there, in Washington DC, on the first day that Rep. King convenes his American Muslim witch hunt.

We should be there to tell him with a thunderous voice that we know who the real domestic threats to America are.

I will be there.

Will you?

A note on the graphic included with this post: The Sons of Liberty were the patriots who had finally had enough and threw the King's tea into Boston Harbor. The graphic is the flag of those American patriots. If you, too, are ready to throw out the tea, proudly adopt this flag as a piece of your heritage once again.

Del Wasso,
Rockford Coffee Party Coordinator,
Rockford, Illinois,
www.rockfordcoffeeparty.org

[radikal dissent]

1. Gun regulations

Could we get some sane gun regulations? Hunting Rifles I understand. I could maybe even understand handguns (I am personally against it).
But semi-automatic rifles and semi-automatic handguns, sawed-off shotguns? These weapons are designed to inflict maximum damage on multiple victims.

[Tejas]

2. Fan of Mayor Nutter eh?

[RSillsbee]

3. Sawed off shot guns are already illegal

and have been since 1934. semiautomatic firearms fire one round (and only one round) each time the trigger is pulled. The technology is over 100 years old.

Perhaps we should focus on the criminal behavior instead

[Tesha]

5. No.

This is America where the gun manufacturers, through their
lobby (the NRA/ILA), have bought the country's legislatures.
And surely it must be evident by now that no amount of
killing will allow sanity to prevail.

Tesha

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

6. I had the same reaction at first. Better gun regulations

would have (probably) stopped this particular terrorist. They wouldn't have stopped McVeigh or the guy who flew his plane into the IRS building.

I'm not a fan of guns but I don't think this is the total solution.

But I do agree with your questioning the need for semi-automatics being freely available.

A little OT, but this week in my neck of the woods we have the trial of the man who sponsored the gun show where the 10 y.o. boy shot himself in the head with the mini-Uzi. The kid's father (emergency room MD, no less) took him and his brother to the show and allowed them to handle these deadly weapons as if it was a batting cage or driving range or some damn thing. WTF????

[RSillsbee]

7. I'm curious

Given that this guy broke the laws against murder what gun law do you think would have stopped him?

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

8. If automatic weapons were not available he couldn't have

done what he did - the way he did it. That was my point. But he could have found another way to express his feelings such as a bombing that could have inflicted just as much damage if not more. I don't know what the solution to the problem of violence is but more gun regulation is not the only answer.

[RSillsbee]

9. There were no "automatic" weapons used in this incident

The guy used a very common semi automatic 9mm pistol. A semiautomatic fires one round every time the trigger is pulled. No different from a double action revolver. semiautomatic handguns were introduced in the late 1800s they are not new technology.

The problem here is the criminal. The gun is just what he happened to use. We would get much closer to solving the problem if we focused on the criminal behavior rather than the tool (IMO)

[Dover]

4. The core issues that fuel violence in our culture go much deeper

and broader than this. It's ingrained in the whole culture.
As the famous line in Cool Hand Luke goes ...

"What we have here is a failure to communicate".

And a failure to relate. It's something we all need to improve on and it can't happen
so long as we're pointing the finger.

[Tejas]

10. 1 in 6 murders are stabbings, would you blame the knife?

[ellisonz]

11. I think you should have to be cleared by the local police office in interview to buy a gun.

You have to pass written and driving tests to legally drive a car, why not apply the same principles to guns?

And the assault weapons ban needs to come back. Imagine if this guy had used an assault rifle how many casualties there could have been. Enough is enough.