I listened, quite impressed, last night to John McCain’s call for unity. Of course, Barack Obama made the same plea. I have written in the New River Voice my own plea for unity and on the Election Special of “The Listening Room” on WVRU last night, Managing Editor Taryn Chase and I again implored this country to come together after this election and end the partisan bickering and try to heal.
It therefore saddens me today to see and hear so much venom coming from McCain supporters. Or maybe they’re not even McCain supporters as much as Obama haters.
I’ve told the story more than once about my disillusionment after the election of 1992 when immediately upon Bill Clinton’s win, there was a movement to destroy him. It seems the “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Bush” bumper stickers were out before the inauguration.
Losing is never an easy pill to swallow, but I think we certainly owe it to this country and to the democratic process to give every president a fair shake. Maybe in a year I will be wondering why we elected Barack Obama, but shouldn’t the guy at least be given a chance?
Some people don’t feel that way. Meet Radford University student Ryan McCormack. According to his Facebook profile, he’s a freshman Criminal Justice major who wants to be a police officer. His activities include “drinking at frat houses,” his political views are “Republican Party” and his religious views “Christian - Catholic.”
Shortly after Obama gave his acceptance speech, this was McCormack’s status message.
Perhaps the conversation is an isolated one, but McCormack is also responsible for a newly formed Facebook group brought to my attention today—one day after the election.
The sad thing is that if I tried, I could probably find other Facebook groups and many more people who have the same mindset as McCormack and the new members of his group, “Rise Against OBOMBER.”
Reading the comments, open for anyone to view, makes me sad and afraid about where this country might be heading.
On one hand, it was amazing to see 125,000 gathered at a park in Chicago to greet the president-elect. It was touching to see grown men weeping at the prospect of hope.
And then today we awaken to the reality.
Hope overcame anger and bitterness in the election. Will it continue to do so after the election? Obama certainly has a challenge in front of him as he will be met with more resistance than probably any other new president before him. We pray that one day we can finally become the UNITED States again.
And we beg the Ryan McCormacks of the world, of whom I fear there are many, to please, please try to stop dividing this country. The world has enough fear and hate. We don’t need any more.
Tim Jackson hopes we can all move forward together.
11 responses so far ↓
1 michele // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Thanks for this piece, Tim. Having spent Tuesday night elated by the results and listening to all the pundits who says this election means we’ve come a long way as a country, my celebration was cut short the minute I got back to work this morning.
I walked into my 10:00 class to a conversation that looked like it was pulled right off of this facebook group. Several students were discussing all of the changes in facebook status that they had seen and many were lamenting Obama’s win.
One student’s silver lining was that at least there had already been some assassination attempts and she was hopeful that one would succeed. I asked her why she thought the president-elect should be killed and she responded by saying that some people deserve to die, but she thought his kids were cute.
There are several things wrong with this picture. I’m not angry with this particular student, she’s upset, probably ill-informed, and I’m quite sure she hadn’t thought much about what she was saying. But, the fact that none of the other students questioned her comments at all suggests that she’s not alone. And that simple acceptance is what disturbed me the most.
2 Tracey Mattson // Nov 6, 2008 at 9:58 am
I was also devastated by the remarks I found on Facebook and by friends on Yahoo. I literally wept in my office yesterday at the hatred that spewed before me. The hate came from people who listed ‘Christian’ as their religious view. How is this possible to have such hatred and call yourself Christian? What, indeed, would Jesus do? Did Jesus have this kind of hatred and poison within him? Obama is not the antichrist, but I am beginning to think the antichrist lives only in the hearts of the so-called christians who have let hate (the devil) grow and fester within their own hearts. Cast out the demons that poison your souls, dear ‘christians.’ Let freedom, liberty, and love ring throughout your own heart and soul. The only ‘end of days’ that is imminent will be at your own hands, not at the hands of President-elect Obama. Stop preaching your ignorance and hatred and get a damned grip on yourself and reality.
May peace, love, and sanity overcome the ignorance and hate that seems to prevail in our beloved country.
3 Luci // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:52 am
An often cited phrase in leadership training is that hate is the opposite side of fear. Most people, especially those lacking emotional intelligence judge their own fear as an unacceptable emotion. I sincerely believe that the overt hate is merely fear for a way of life; white privelege. Sadly, most of these students are echoing their parents’ views. Backed by the gaming industry, they can easily visualize “eliminating” someone with no consequences other than to hit “replay”. How as teachers do we deal? I think address the underlying fear.
4 Luci // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:10 pm
And.. . perhaps these students don’t realize that threats such as these are no less than the threat of treason toward a Pres. Elect. In the atmosphere of Homeland Security Pres. Bush established, perhaps they should develop a better self-filter.
5 jim // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:41 pm
One of the first precautions that students are taught is that they will live with the consequences of their actions on public blogs etc. What are Mr. MacCormacks future employment possibilities when he conducts a website that spews hatred. Comments,form fiends with similar feelings, contain veiled threats to assassinating the President elect. Under these circumstances, this appears to be not only treasoness, but also a hate crime.
As a person who has conducted many background searches on job applicants, I fear that Mr. MacCormack might remain unemployed upon graduation. He certainly is not fit to be a future law enforcement professional.
6 Ginny // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:26 pm
It seemed quite admirable for John McCain to attempt to quell the hatred in the crowd that was evident at his gracious final speech. However, considering that he and Governor Palin fueled that that sentiment for months before with comments about terrorism and “our country vs their country”, it’s no accident that this anger abounds. The answer it seems, is not to have the divisory atmosphere throughout the campaign. People who are incited can’t just shut it off. This conversation needs to happen prior to more of the same at the next election.
How ironic that Jesus was the subject of this kind of group think and mass hatred. We Christians need to connect those dots.
Those who have legitimate letdown after this election need to see the bigger picture and not keep the rhetoric that was only there for campaign purposes going. Many of us felt that way after the last two elections. We are all Americans and can be united.
7 jim // Nov 6, 2008 at 5:36 pm
These young people might be naive, however they need to realize the severity of their actions:
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 41 > § 871Prev | Next
§ 871. Threats against President and successors to the Presidency
(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(b) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2. The phrase “other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President” as used in this section shall mean the person next in the order of succession to act as President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 19 and 20
8 jinx // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:01 pm
What I particularly liked about this peace that it was not a movement to hate the hatred. I am a registered democrat, but did not get the chance to vote this year and I was disappointed. I was happy to see the state of Virginia light up blue on the map and I was happy to see Obama win. However, I find it discouraging that my generation has become one of “my candidate v.s your candidate” for no other reason than to argue.
I did have one intelligent conversation with one of my former managers about Obama’s ability to effectively run this country, but I also posed the question to her concerning Palin’s ability should McCain had won and died in office. It was calm and we let the other speak and listened to what we had to say. It was nice to speak to a mature person about the election.
In general, I find that facebook makes me despise my generation and their close-mindedness. I fear for what this nation will become when my generation is the one in control.
9 Jenny // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Tracy, I totally agree with your quote:
“I am beginning to think the antichrist lives only in the hearts of the so-called christians who have let hate (the devil) grow and fester within their own hearts.”
It saddens me especially to see so much bitterness coming from the young people. The Bible also says that anyone who corrupts a young person’s mind deserves to be drowned (I know this because I used to be a Christian, until I just got tired of hearing the hate speech). Teaching your children to be filled with a hate would definitely qualify as corruption, but the most vocal Christian parents often don’t seem to take the advice offered in their own holy book.
Perhaps it’s because I’m lucky enough to work in a more tolerant environment, but I am still holding out hope for Obama, in spite of my fears for his safety. Social psychology research shows that one of the best ways to extinguish homophobia was to arrange for positive interactions between a homosexual and a homophobic person. I can only hope this same process will be at work when more people are exposed to Obama and his positive messages of hope.
10 Jenny // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Wow, could I have used the word “hope” any more times in one post? I would go back and edit if possible, but this is just one sign of the effects that the election is having. I hardly recognize myself because our president elect exudes so much positive energy that even my hardy cynicism is starting to wither.
11 Tracey Mattson // Nov 7, 2008 at 6:16 am
One thing we all forgot about this generation…many of them have the attention span of a gnat. Things have settled down to zero negativity on my ‘friend’ status updates, and I hope that is a trend for all.
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