So Rick Santorum is on the gun range in West Monroe, Louisiana, and he's getting set to fire a few shots at a man-shaped paper target. That's when a woman calls out "Pretend it's Obama!" as he begins to shoot.
Santorum didn't hear her original remark, and condemned it when told what had been said.
Meanwhile, over on Faux News, Geraldo Rivera was blaming Trayvon Martin's choice of clothing for his tragic murder in Florida: "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was."
President Obama bemoaned the killing of Trayvon Martin, saying that if he had a son "he'd look like Trayvon," and adding,"Obviously, this is a tragedy," he said. "I can only imagine what these parents are going through, and when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this, and that everybody pulls together -- federal, state and local -- to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
Meanwhile, Noot "Somebody Pay Attention to Me!" Gingrich found the president's comments "disgusting", saying: “Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.”
There you go, all in the course of one day. One presidential candidate is urged to take a few shots at a target while imagining he's shooting at the President, who's expressed sorrow at the death of an innocent child, but is being criticized for not making his public remorse more inclusive of white folks by another presidential candidate, while a washed up television commentator on Faux blames the shooting on the dead child's questionable taste in clothes.
March 23, 2012, in America.
To paraphrase Jack Crabb from "Little Big Man",
"There was no describing how I felt... the world was too ridiculous to even bother to live in."
(heavy sigh...)
4 comments:
I heard some caller on the Randi Rhodes show huff about how if the victim had been white Al Sharpton would not have taken the time to go to Florida.
Where to begin to address that?
notacynic, I think I can answer that question: if the victim had been white he wouldn't have been shot at in the first place. The cop wannabe with the gun never would have looked twice at the kid, never would have followed him, never would have confronted him with a gun.
Even if he HAD shot a white kid instead of Trayvon Martin, there would have been no need for Al Sharpton to go to Floriduh because the shooter would probably have been arrested on the spot.
The reason this is a big deal is because this town and others in the region have a legacy of this sort of thing.
If it had been your child or mine, we'd make sure the asshole with the gun was at least held responsible for his actions, and no one would question our motives.
Squatlo,
You are right. Another dead black kid is no big deal for far to many
people. George Zimmerman needs to be arrested and indicted for Trayvon Martin's killing.
Now, don't try and hold your breath until that happens.
Upside - the feds are giving it a look as a hate crime.
Ron
The hoodie remark went so far beyond stupid it's unreal. Is there a teenager in this country who doesn't wear a hoodie occasionally? Or, for that matter, an adult?
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