Racism alive and well in America
24/December/2006 02:37 Filed in: Civil Rights
This week Rep Virgil Goode became the bigot of the
month in a letter to his constituents in Virginia.
Republicans regularly deny that they are racist
anymore and yet somehow, pockets of America keep
sending representatives to lead our nation that
clearly need to be removed from office. His letter
responded to the swearing in of a new Congressmen
from Minnesota, Rep, Keith Ellison, who happens to be
Muslim. Because of his religion, he, of course will
not be putting his hand on the Bible for his swearing
in, but has requested the Quran. As a result, Rep.
Goode sent out a letter warning people that if they
"don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on
immigration there will likely be many more Muslims
elected to office and demanding the use of the
Quran." Regardless of the fact that Rep. Goode
doesn't understand the Constitution he should be
defending, it seems that Rep Ellison is not an
immigrant but can trace his ancestry to the 1700s in
this country and converted to Islam in college. In
spite of the negative press, Rep Goode will not back
down and has caused many others to rear their ugly
heads. Republican talk show host, Dennis Prager, for
example, said publicly that Ellison should quit if he
refuses to use the Bible. Prager continually uses
Mormons as his example of choice, stating that they
don't request to use the Book of Mormon. Of course,
Mr. Prager, obviously doesn't know that Mormons use
the Bible too as their fundamental canon as well.
Later Rush Limbaugh got into an argument with his own
call screener over this issue. Rush, attempting to
support Rep. Goode told his screener, "He's voiced a
concern that many Americans have. They probably don't
have the courage to say it, but (interruption). My
own staff, even in the spirit of Christmas, sees fit
to argue with me. (interruption) ... as I understand
it: If we don't get a handle on immigration, we are
going to end up like Europe -- and if you don't think
that there are a lot of people that think like that,
then that's why you're screening and why I'm hosting
because you are out of touch." Now moving on to
another Republican talk show host, Sean Hannity, we
hear even more vitriolic hate-mongering. Regarding
the issue, Mr. Hannity stated, the swearing-in of
Ellison "will embolden Islamic extremists and make
new ones" and suggested that using the Quran for a
swearing-in is comparable to using "Hitler's Mein
Kampf, which is the Nazi bible."