Molten Pot 2
The Philadelphia Daily News’s Sandy Shea tries to make sense of recent events. A snippet:
What worries me is that the reappearance of these incidents says something ugly about all of us – and not only those who are filled with hate.
We’ve told ourselves for generations that we are a tolerant nation, that we welcome outsiders, that we are a melting pot of cultures and nationalities. I’ve believed it. But now I have to wonder: Was that tolerance only skin deep? Was collective hatred so close to the surface that all it took was implied (and explicit) permission from someone who encourages suspicion and fear?
March 5, 2017 at 4:06 pm
I’ve been thinking about this too. I think that we are a tolerant nation that in continuous evolution on tolerance. We’ve lived through a period where intolerance was mainly socially unacceptable and we have a government that now says that is wrong. And we have the GOP who have made it a key part of the discussion with their base that poor people and “different” people are why they are struggling. Demonizing the other (and not the corporations that really are the problem) is the bread and circuses that keep these folks from paying attention to their real issues. But I guess all that means is that some self-knowledge is not going to be possible for some and some of us will be paying the price for that.
March 5, 2017 at 8:55 pm
I tend to agree, maybe I’m just being blind, about the evolution.
Frankly, the GOP of hate is Richard Nixon’s legacy. His decision to court Southern bigots and to invite fringe Christian nutbag sects into the mainstream has enabled them to consume the Republican Party.
Even Barry Goldwater, no liberal he, once said, “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.”