Good Protest versus Bad Protest

Tea Party has become synonymous with bigot, racist, hate, violent, and the likes. This past rally in Washington DC, on the eve of health care reform, didn't help our cause. There were reports of racial slurs directed at Civil Rights activist and now congressman John Lewis, homophobic insult at the outed Barney Frank, and some outrageous protester spit in Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's face. This is despicable and inexcusable behavior. Many of the attendees near the incidences, including William Owens, a black Tea Party activist from Nevada, said that in the case of Rep. Lewis, he didn't hear any racial slurs or shouts. And those surrounding the Barney Frank incident, recalled the representative walking directly over to the "protester" who had only approached minutes before Franks arrival, directed an expletive at him, and he responded with his derogatory comeback. Regardless of the claims, I will always be against using profanities or slurs and violence in place of an honest and factually sound argument. Now, the latest "Breaking News" is that Reps. Stupak and Slaughter have reportedly received death threats.

We are currently in such a volatile political environment, and ignorant outraged extremists are giving the constitutionally sound and majority driven cause a dangerously bad rap. And I believe that those in power are exploiting these typically sensitive topics to further their cause. To make those who honestly oppose this administrations efforts to expand the scope and depth of the federal government afraid of voicing their dissent, in fear of being labeled racist, violent or bigots. My fear is that isolated incidents of radical measures, like those being covered, will be accepted as typical and discredit any valid arguments opposition has to offer. We do not need to resort to violence because are educated, law-abiding, freedom relishing citizens. We uphold our laws, especially the highest law of the land, the Constitution. I pray that this is the last we hear of such violence and that the coverage received doesn't encourage those seeking publicity to use similar extreme measures. We need to fight this in the courts, on the floors of the Capitol and at our local level.