Minister Luis Farrakhan told his congregation at the United Center in Chicago just little under a month ago that people are targeting President Obama and that an assassination attempt is imminent.
Farrakhan said that there are people who don’t like having a black man in the White House, explaining:
“They have called President Barack Obama a racist, an anti-Semite, a socialist, a communist, a foreigner, an alien and some have even called him a terrorist.
Obama has really got them upset. Republicans are looking for some white person. Anybody. Anybody.”
His sentiments are correct. It was revealed that a record 1,018 hate groups have spawned in the last year.
Fed no doubt by antagonism toward President Obama, changing racial demographics and the economic gap between the rich and poor, some people are getting angrier and mobilizing. Which is why data from the Southern Poverty Law Center found that hate groups and antigovernment organizations in America are growing at a rapid pace.
And as the national conversation changes with the influx of media coverage, blogs, tweets, update statuses from Facebook and government building, the hate only increases.
The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010” led to the overturning of the military policy that banned gay members from serving openly, that same year antigay groups rose from 17 to 27 in 2010.
The report also described a “stunning” rise in the number of groups it identifies as part of the so-called patriot and militia movements, whose ideologies include deep distrust of the federal government.
Is anyone surprised by this growth in hate? I’m not, It’s easier to hate than love. Besides, these gun-toting militia groups are the same folks who are glued to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh with the same talking points flashing in front of their eyes like a rolling scroll:
Obama was born in Kenya…Obama sympathizes with Muslim terrorists…Obama is a communist who wants to institute death panels and touch off class warfare…
It’s a mantra that doesn’t end, even four years into his presidency.
Hate, dislike and contempt add nothing to a discussion about improving our country, but then again, how can you have a healthy conversation with someone who already has their mind programmed?
–S.G.
