JordanCornblog

Thankfully the crude bomb that someone fashioned and put into a vehicle which he or she then parked in Times Square was discovered and dismantled before it was detonated.  I wonder who put it there.

I wonder about the politics of the person … and also, on a more micro level, wonder about the very individual motives and incendiary illusions that drive someone who deliberately chooses to do this sort of thing.

Who are you and what fucked up delusions drive you?  Seriously.  It takes time and thought to put together a bomb … to figure out how to do it, gather the necessary materials, construct it … then get it to wherever you plan to do your damage.  Each step along the way you could reconsider … change your mind … back off.  Each step along the way there could be a burst of sudden clarity … your humanity breaking through as you realize how very, very horribly wrong you were about what you were planning to do.

Your sanity and humanity could kick in at any step along the way.  But sometimes it doesn’t.  And it’s so good, then, when your plans are thwarted by someone else.

I am hoping that there was no Muslim-extremist involvement in this foiled event … that it was rather one of our home-grown terrorists.  Why?  Because I’d prefer self examination to the finger-pointing that would otherwise ensue.  It would be especially nice of thise were some Ann-Coulter-quoting birther-bigot trying to bring on the Second Coming.

I would like to see this recent event get us to look at how we define terrorism.  It would be nice if something like this brought us to realize that these impulses that we like to impute to “others” are right here, seething, all the time … fomented by the irresponsible language of pundits and so-called leaders … waiting to wreak havoc.

Terror.  What is terror?

The Phillies dropped out of first place last night with their loss to the Giants … and in the meantime the Mets have snuck into first.  Who thought THEY’D be the NYC team at the top of their division on April 28th?

Time to take a breath!

Here’s an e-mail piece that a friend sent me yesterday … I found it at once thought-provoking, very disturbing … and not-so-surprising.  Stepping back and looking at our world with eyes stripped of the assumptions we unconsciously carry is always an interesting experience … to put it mildly …

This is from Tim Wise – and you can visit his blog here!

“Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black” – Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called Imagine. The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes well conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So lets’ begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters the black protesters spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didnt like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters, these black protesters with guns, be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun. Because thats’ what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister who also works for the organization defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and going through a tough time in his life would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because thats what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by hating black people, or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough “living fossils” as he called them,so we will never forget what these people stood for. After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois, in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been destroying the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to hang ’em high. And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for speaking common sense and likened his hate talk to American values? After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her typical redneck trash, or a whore whose mother entertains her by making monkey sounds. After all, that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as ghetto trash.

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark other does so, however, it isnt viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and American-ness of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.