Arguing is fun! That's the shortest way of expressing a love for verbally battling another person - well - I guess you could just yell ARGUING! and maybe people would understand that you get really enthused over arguing, and that perhaps you love doing it, I don't know. I know one thing, I got involved in an argument yesterday over something I care nothing about in this point of my life: politics. The downside of this was I wasn't the center of the argument, I was kind of an observer while two other people argued. It could be construed that the two were just chatting, but one of the persons involved spoke at length, while the other made his point and outright opposed the other. Now that I think of it, perhaps the two were merely debating, and I'm stating that they argued to blur the lines between arguing and debating. I've always characterized debating with two persons either standing at a podium speaking their minds on a high school theater stage, or in some type of auditorium, or, sitting by a lamp in winged-back leather upholstered chairs sharing finger sandwiches and periodically stopping their banter to sip hot tea.
A brother to one of my friends brought to my attention an article about South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during Barack's speech to congress on health care, I believe last Wednesday; I've placed a link to the article on here, so why retell it, eh? You can fuckin' read!
Rep. Wilson was then called a racist by some of his constituents and others who weighed in on his outburst. Back to the argument, it started out like this - Clayton posted the link to the article, I read the article, then replied this:
"Many watched the rancor at last month's town hall meetings with suspicion that the intense anger among some participants -- including signs calling for Obama's death and a movement questioning his citizenship -- was fueled by the fact that a black man sits in the Oval Office." (Quoted from the article) (My reply) I understand how that could be taken as racism. A republican calling the president a liar...ya, not so much.
Calling Wilson a racist for shouting "You lie!" just because he's calling a black person a liar is not racist. I have a feeling most of the people constantly pulling the race card don't understand the definition of the term racism. Stating that Wilson only interrupted the president because he had witnessed similar outcry at the town hall meetings where numerous signs were thrust in the air with hateful-to-outright derogatory statements about the president written on them, doesn't make Congressman Wilson a racist. The fact that he spoke out against a black man who happens to be our commander-in chief, and that he's white, makes him a racist.
Whoa! WHAT!? Yeah I fuckin' said it! Obama is our white-knight, apparently - well, black-knight, I guess, considering he's a black male...and he can't do anything wrong. A white male criticizing him can only mean, to some folk, that the white guy is a racist, and doesn't like Obama. Barack Obama reforming health care, treading dangerous ground by changing the way that system works, maybe altering it for the good or bad, those opposing him, mostly made up of the other party, Republicans, Congressman Wilson being a REPUBLICAN from South Carolina -- that's the reason why he's unhappy with Obama and calling him a liar, not the fact that the person he is calling a liar is of a different race than him. It would be different if Congressman Wilson played the town crier in Charleston, walked up and down Amherst Street with a megaphone, shouting, "All you niggers better get outta my town!" If he had prior history of racism - yeah, there's a good chance he's a racist. Remember this because I'm gonna bring it full circle a little later.
After I made my comment about the argument, some Star Wars fan made a Rancor joke - rancor in the sense of the Star Wars-beasty and not unflinchingly, deep-seated ill will as is the definition of the noun. The joke was brought up because the article has the word rancor in it, and not because the person has a recurring sexual fantasy regarding a Rancor from Star Wars eating his mother singing La Vie Boheme from the musical RENT, while a dominatrix pours hot wax on his nipples while stepping on his genitals.
The brother of my friend stated this after the rancor-comment:
"This is like forcing people to fear criticizing the government or they'll be damned as a racist. In my opinion that's going down a dangerous road."
This was when battle commenced! A guy by the name of, oh, let's call him Jam because I'm not comfortable with using a person's real name on here, Jam decided to put in his two cents, saying:
"In this case, a sanction is not a violation of the Congressman's free speech. The rules of decorum on the floor are considered highly important, and involve both acting in a manner befitting a member of the Congress and not speaking when you are not recognized by the Chair. He broke the rules by shouting angrily at the President of the United States during an address while he did not have the floor. Technically, if this offense were considered severe enough, he could be removed from office for it.
That part has nothing to do with racism or party or the content of his message, and everything to do with the functioning of Congress. He broke the rules, and he is being duly punished for breaking the rules.
Anything more than that is public discourse, protected by the First Amendment."
Way ta go, Sam, I mean Jam! I agree, the only punishment Congressman Wilson should receive should be for interrupting the president while he had the floor. That's not fuckin' cool, man! They got strict rules as to when you can speak at those hearings, and he just decided, fuck that shit, I'm speaking out! forgetting all entirely that he was at a congressional meeting. But a racist!? I don't see any racism in that.
That was a short argument, right? Well, it didn't end there. Here's what the brother of my friend had to say:
"I'm not defending the Congressman's actions, what bothers me is that they want to turn those actions into a race issue."
...oh no he di'n't! This is gonna end in blood! Jam countered:
"They can say that he's a racist for disagreeing with the President. It's protected under the First Amendment. Similarly, you can call them weak-willed sheep that ought to just open a church already and quit dragging their feet. That's also protected. :) See how this works? Everybody's unhappy!"
You mother fucker! Everybody's NOT FUCKING happy! Mr. Sunshine-on-my-fuckin'-shoulders, you think this shit's over! You wanna dance the fightin' dance!? Circlin' and circlin' with our switchblades out - this is not endin' well..for you! Let's turn back to my friend's brother; see what he has to say about it.
"lol, good way of looking at it"
...
I told you to remember something; do you know what that was? Well, it was me saying if Congressman Wilson had a history with racist remarks, or, even just outbursts on the floor or in interviews prior, we might have ourselves a problem.
In 2002 during a live broadcast of the C-SPAN talk show Washington Journal, Joe Wilson (hey I know that guy!) alongside Democratic Congressman Bob Filner were discussing Iraqi WMD's. When Filner said that the US "gave" Iraq "chemical and biological weapons" in the 1980s, Wilson said this idea was "made up" and replied, "This hatred of America by some people is just outrageous. And you need to get over that." Wilson ended up apologizing for that little fiasco as well.
In 2003, a woman by the name of Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed that she was the daughter of Senator Strom Thurman who Wilson worked under, and that Thurman had a child with his black maid, Essie being the product of that affair. Joe was one of the first to deny the claim, which there again, he called a black person a liar, and stated that Thurman would never have a child out of wedlock. After Thurman's family acknowledged the truth of Williams' claim, Joe Wilson had to apologize once again, but still retained his opinion that the woman should have kept her mouth shut because it smeared Thurman's name and legacy.
What might you say is my opinion of Joe Wilson? Well, to be frank, he's kind of a loud mouth, and in the words of Sarah Palin, a tad bit gungho! He's quick to spout his opinion, be it right or wrong, in most cases wrong, without all the facts to his knowledge. I'd say if you are a Republican against Obama's health care plan, or a nay-sayer to health care reform in general, shut your fucking mouth and open your ears. Hear all the opinions, all the information about it, before you blow your horn. And remember, your president is a figurehead. I'm sure Pelosi and the majority of the House and Senate are really whose behind health care reform, considering Obama's proposal was totally fucking different from what is planned for health care NOW. I think he found out that just because he's president doesn't mean he can propose something, and it'll be the word of God, sort of say, or written in stone. He could have flat out resisted, and done a Bush signing something in to law that hasn't been fully analyzed, but I'm sure he was given an ultimatum nonetheless and told to play ball, and the fact of the matter is, Barack Obama isn't George W. Bush. He's willing to listen.
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