A Friendly Letter, The Blog.

‎[Sigh] I would have been very satisfied had I gone to my grave without ever mentioning the words “Glenn” and “Beck” together on this blog, or any other page.

Besides disliking the individual and what he stands for, I have also hoped to avoid turning this space into one more locale where the media chatter of the day is regurgitated and remasticated yet one more time, reinforcing its largely false and falsifying view of life, the world, and what’s important in both.

But sometimes s*it happens anyway.

G—- B—

So it goes with the “tagging” by a Facebook friend of my name being taken more or less in vain on the G—- B— program recently. I assure everyone it was through no initiative of my own. But the fact is the fact.

As you will see if you follow this link, someone plays for him a bit from an interview with former NAACP President Julian Bond, in which Bond quotes me as quoting Dr. King as saying (in 1965) that he’d like to see “a modified form of socialism” come about in the US.

It’s true. Dr. King did say that to me. The comment is recorded in context in my memoir, “Eating Dr. King’s Dinner,” about my time in Selma, Alabama with the civil rights movement.

In that small book, I also point out that at the time, I notably failed to ask the question which, in retrospect, immediately comes to mind, namely, “Um, Dr. King, just what do you mean by a MODIFIED form of socialism???” After all, “a modified form of socialism” could be just about anything.

But at that moment, I just nodded sagely, as if I understood completely; after all, I was 22.

An Outside Agitator’s mug shot - Selma, Alabama, 1965.

I guess this shocking disclosure left Mr B— reeling aghast, and may have borne some bitter fruit today (August 28, 2010) on the mall in Washington. I hear B— is having some kind of revival meeting there, but have not paid (nor do I intend to pay) it any attention.

Freedom of speech includes B—’s right to gather and blather; also my right to ignore it.

At least I was quoted accurately.

First item: here’s most of a Letter to the Editor of our local North Carolina paper published on May 30, followed by a question to ponder:

<< The man in our White House is plunging our country into a civil war, dividing the citizens in this great United States. He is determined to destroy us, from within and from without, one way or another.

Civil War, the romanticized view.

On the inside, he says states cannot take it upon themselves to enforce federal law to protect their state from drugs, drug lords, weapons sales, murder, kidnapping and destruction of property caused by illegal immigrants coming into the U.S.

On the outside, he is disarming our country, thinking he is encouraging peace and favor with our enemies when the enemy does nothing except lie. He apologizes for us being a free and patriotic people.

He has spent and is spending money like a man gone wild from day one, always in a helicopter or Air Force One going somewhere to politic or have a photo op.

He is going to cause our country to collapse under a mountain of debt with programs he proposed and a stupid Congress voted into law.

We fear for our children and grandchildren. What have some of the American people voted into the White House?

A man gone greedy for power and control of the greatest nation on Earth. He is unpatriotic and pretends to be a Christian. How can we take three more years of this?
>>

Civil war, the view of the losers;
a few of several hundred thousand dead, on both sides.

A “civil war”? “How can we take three more years . . .?” This is dangerous rhetoric. The paper is published near Ft. Bragg, where they stay on high alert against infiltration or subversion. I hope the appropriate authorities were taking note.

Here is where talk of civil war leads.
Have some folks forgotten?

Second Item, from a Midwestern state, June 7: He Wanted To Puke

A friend reports that he was at a restaurant and overheard a lady say she wished someone would shoot President Obama.

Now, where would she get an idea like that?? Could it be . . .?

One result of such murderous talk.

The friend was appalled, got up and told her so, and she apologized. Then she said, “I’m a Christian. It’s up to the Lord to judge, not me.” As if the only thing out of line was her judgmental attitude, not her call for assassination. The friend says he wanted to puke.

I’m glad he spoke up. But I wish he had done more. I wish he had asked for her name, and then informed her he was going to send it to the Secret Service.

Secret Service star

When this friend mentioned the incident online, he got dozens of responses talking about forgiveness and forbearance and patience and so forth.

That’s all as may be. But talk like that is not solely a matter for prayer and all that pious stuff. Such ideas have very definite consequences, which could be fatal.

President James Garfield is shot, 1881.
He died several weeks later from his wound.

You see, it’s NOT ONLY for the Lord to judge. In such cases, the Secret Service has a call to make too. Not about heaven or hell. About life and death.

The Secret Service deserved to be called because even if that individual had no intention of acting on it, her expressions are the breeding ground of murderers, just as stagnant pools down here breed blood-sucking, disease-carrying mosquitoes.

I’m not worried here about what a forgiving god will do. I am concerned that those with the concrete responsibility to protect the family in the White House have help from citizens.

President William McKinley is shot, 1901. He died a few days later.

Don’t know if I’d have had the courage to do what I’ve recommended; but I’m convinced it’s the right course.

I once worked for Dr. Martin Luther King. I saw how he got death threats almost every day. Most of them were just talk.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, under arrest.

But a significant number were more. I personally know of two in my short time with him, that were very real, but were foiled. One later plot finally succeeded; others could have.

Dr. King’s tomb, Atlanta

I expect the Secret Service is plenty busy already, protecting the current president. But I think they would have been interested in my friend’s information, and they should be.

The Secret Service’s field office phone numbers are all here

Their website points out that they are not interested in hearing about political opposition to the president. If the lady in question had said she hoped the president would be defeated, or even impeached, that’s dissent, and it’s free speech and not their concern.

Instead she said she hoped somebody would SHOOT him.

Over the line. It’s not a tough call.

Next time we hear such talk, friends, let’s pick up the phone. It’s the patriotic thing to do.

“Sedition Watch.” This feature brings up “dots” of data that come onto my radar screen, which I’m working to connect.

The implications of the potential connections are unsettling, and I hope the authorities are watching. The elements here are straightforward: there are a lot of upset people, mostly guys, with guns out there, and with a high level of training in how to use them. And they are being fed a diet of sedition — talk of violent insurrection, or perhaps mounting a coup d’etat.

One of the main “factories” for this population is the Special Forces qualification course run out of Fort Bragg. It graduates about eight classes of “Operators” per year, and it not the only location for this process. The “final exam” for this course is a two-week wargame called “Robin sage,” which takes place across ten mostly rural North Carolina counties.

All three armed services, plus the Marines, have their own version of these programs. The number of graduates is classified, but must be in the high three or four figures annually. The Army’s “Robin Sage” has been going on for fifty years.

Once awarded their berets, these “operators” go off on secret missions, which usually stay secret unless they go very wrong. This likely happens more often than we know. (How do these three things fit together: Pat Tillman, General McChrystal, and coverup?)

Many of these “operators” make careers in the military. But many others get out, and then go to work for private contractors, like the former Blackwater Corp. There they do still more secret missions, with as many or more guns and other weapons, but with much less public scrutiny.

It is this burgeoning population of heavily armed, highly trained “operators, especially those now employed by “private contractors,” that worries me. Many of them are believers in a crusader version of fundamentalist Christianity — one of the most visible being former green beret commander, retired General “Jerry” Boykin. See examples of his views, and their chilling echoes in this piece by Jeff Sharlet in a recent issue of Harpers. Its chilling title is, “Jesus Killed Mohammed.”

The possibilities for misuse of these skills and belief system should give lovers of freedom nightmares. And since the election of 2008, the rumblings of discontent within the subset of the population where many of them dwell has reached a fever pitch. If this seditious propaganda should ever take concrete form, there would be plenty of highly trained shock troops to act it out.

Hence we come to Sedition Watch. it is suggestive rather than comprehensive. But as 2009 has unfolded, there have been dots accumulating. One of them that brought me up short was reported on November 2 2009: a Special Forces soldier at Ft. Campbell KY was arrested after 100 lbs of C-4 plastic explosive was found buried in what sounds like his back yard.

C-4 is serious explosive stuff, more powerful than TNT, and widely used in military and paramilitary operations. The reports say it has few if any civilian uses. What was he planning to do with it? There has been little reporting on the case since then; chances are good that the public will never know what the investigation of this incident turns up..

Less specific but indicative of the atmosphere are two local events.

First, in October, billboards went up around Fayetteville NC (home of Ft. Bragg, where the Special forces are headquartered).

And in case you didn’t catch the message,

About a month later, on November 8, our local paper greeted readers of the front section of its Sunday edition (the most widely-read of the week) with a half-page ad by a local gun shop. The ad was dark-colored, and difficult to scan. But here it is, followed by a few annotations for clarity.

If you have trouble reading the banner, it announces the “‘Yes We Can’ Extravaganza.” And in case the top-right photo is fuzzy, it features a rifle and a long bayonet to go with it, The Mosin Nagant 91/30 7.62 x 54R, for the low price of $99.95.

The top left is a Delton AR-15 Flat Top .223 calibre, with 5 30-round magazines. It’s more pricey at $739.95.

It’s safe to say that neither of these is designed for something as mundane as, say, deerhunting. Nor is the centerpiece, a Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol, a mere $299.95 , after rebate.

In the lower left is an array of high-power weapons flashlights, which go with or attach to various of these firearms for nighttime targeting.

And what do you suppose it means to call a sale the “Yes We Can Extravaganza”?

These are, of course, local dots, invisible to the general public. More recently there are the now-notorious

One person who has connected some of these dots is a former stalwart of the religious right, Frank Schaeffer. He talked about this in an interview with Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show, on November 19. The whole transcript is worth reading, but the money quote is here:

A good friend of mine from college days is a member of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian church in Knoxville that was shot up on Sunday, July 27. She was there with her husband, but thankfully was not hit.

(Thankfully. I feel a twinge of survivor’s guilt writing that; but there it is.)

The reports Monday about the rantings of the shooter, wanting to kill all liberals and gays, and the targeting of this particular church, well-known for its welcoming stance and other progressive views, brings a lot of things home to me.

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