I am blogging this morning from my hotel room in Pittsburgh, where I’m eagerly awaiting the New Organizing Institute Summit, before the start of Netroots Nation on Thursday. I’ve had the TV on in the background, listening to the morning news shows – something I never have the luxury to do at home. And, I have to be honest, the coverage of all of the healthcare town halls and the angry mobs descending upon them is frightening. Not just because of the overwhelming amount of misinformation being circulated (and bought into), but the sheer amount of blind hate people are spewing at anything and everything they view as “other” than them.
With this context in mind, I’m going to post a video that was captured at a recent New Hampshire town hall. For those of us in the immigration fight, this type of vitriol is nothing new – but in light of the frenzied screaming matches occurring all over the country, I feel like hate speech like this is being more and more legitimized. I mean, at one point in this video, you can here these lines:
“Send [illegal immigrants] home with a bullet in the head the second time”
“Read what Jefferson said about the Tree of Liberty – it’s coming baby.”
[Jefferson said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”]
If that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, I’m not sure what will. The bottom line is, we must find a way to counter this hate.
h/t to Jackie at America’s Voice and Kyle at Citizen Orange for this.
Fair Immigration Reform Movement 