Charmed, I’m Sure
September 28, 2009
Rude? Honest? Disrespectful? Political? Emotional? Boorish?
The outburst of “You lie!” by Joe Wilson, the representative from South Carolina, surprised President Obama in the midst of his speech to the members of Congress.
Watching it live on TV, I observed the cameras panning for the source of the disruption. News commentators repeated the words in astonishment and Obama resumed his address without ceding any momentum in stating his case for healthcare reform.
After the first surprise had passed I found myself wondering if there would be further outbursts or confrontation. I felt sad for the personal slur to our President and his Office. I also experienced a little jolt of excitement at the challenge those words presented and realized with a bit of a stab how divisive the issue of healthcare changes had become.
Wilson apologized; his Republican colleagues denounced his words and action when interviewed but in conservative venues and circles, Wilson is a hero.
The Democratic-lead House formally rebuked Wilson for his lapse of judgement.
I have read and heard that the English Parliament traditionally takes a no-holds-barred approach in their debates. It seems odd that British reserve and decorum would lend itself to melees in its law-making body. Verbal sparring and political invective are pretty much bedrock in American society though not often during a televised address. Most of us learned from a young age that the rules of engagement for a disagreement exclude personal attacks. In true debate they don’t do much to clarify the issue or support a point of view. They are lightening rods for angry reactions.
Wilson’s past fuels speculation about his motivations in shouting at Obama. In his home state, he was an aide and political colleague of the late U. S. Senator Strom Thurmond, a man who unapologetically battled against desegregation in the 50s and 60s. I wouldn’t think it possible, at this point in our country’s history, for a member of the U.S. Congress to harbor racist beliefs. Unknown to most in the national political scene, Wilson is touted by his friends to be a polite, considerate man. He says he wants to chalk this incident up to emotional sponteneity.
Obama is undamaged by the accusation. The statement that made Wilson froth, Obama’s denouncement of inclusion for illegal aliens in his healthcare plan, has been substantiated independently. Wilson may have shot himself in the foot; back home a challenger for his House seat received a boost in campaign contributions after the outburst.
It appears to me Joe Wilson was responding to more than the issue at hand in a spontaneous moment. I can’t attribute racist views to Wilson, I don’t know him. Perhaps hide-bound opposition or showing off for his supporters was the prompt. But how unmindful can a guy be in the midst of the entire United States Congress, listening to the President, being televised nation and even worldwide?
Of course it’s right to speak your mind without fear or undue formality, but civility matters. It keeps the issue in focus so a meaningful debate can occur – then maybe a solution.
Charm school is an old-fashioned notion; civil discourse may be out of style as well.
September 29, 2009 at 1:31 am
Our government panders to the 20 to 30 plus (?) illegal immigrants allowing them free subsidies from taxpayers in the US. California–a Sanctuary State has one of the worst records that currently languish under the immense burden of near bankruptcy, instead of –ATTRACTING–ICE to illegal business operations. Why wouldn’t certain legislators want health care for foreign labor, because they have an over abundance of illegal immigrant families to financially support? Our own government is so absorbed in protecting every other countries border? They remain unconcerned to our poor replica border fence that should have been a two-tier periphery, with border patrol surveillance lanes in between, as originally planned by Rep. Duncan Hunter. Every time a good enforcement plan is written, it’s methodically cut to pieces by pro-illegal worker politicians and open border fanatics. Though we spend billions on our armed forces in foreign lands, the rich countries in Europe just forward token troops and little money: while our nation is literary falling apart at the seams–or its rivets?
Most of these other lands have been at each others throats for centuries, so why do we expect any metamorphism into something any different? Only change can come from within, not by our nation expending billions of dollars, American lives? We must build our own borders fences, tall and strong and meant to keep out drug dealers, criminal aliens, terrorists and the never ending tracks of illegal aliens. Our politician’s noses are involved in too much foreign policy, while our aging infrastructure implodes. Trillions of dollars are spirited out the country, while we gain little in return. Washington–MUST–start giving back to the jobless American worker by placing a 5 year moratorium on all immigration, even legal? The next politicians should deliver us from any new sinister path to citizenship or better referred to as BLANKET AMNESTY? Follow the “Rule of Law” and not twist it into something else for their own convenience, as it will come back to haunt them at the voting booth. Unless ACORN steps-in with another fed contract and handles sign-ups for the ballot box? In that case will still see absentee ballots for the deceased people, pets and anybody who has learned that you need no government picture ID to sign on to vote.
The 1986 immigration reform bill dismally failed last time and all we inherited was 5 million illegal immigrants that still keep on coming with their impoverished hands out. Anti-Illegal immigrant forces are growing in numbers to stop another travesty. They acknowledge it could end up costing billions, perhaps even trillions of dollars. Nationwide we have seen the advent of closing hospitals and emergency rooms that have been submerged everyday by swarms by penniless foreigners and their families. Yes! We need health care reform. Americans are dying, going bankrupt , falling under the spell of debt collectors. The special interest lobbyists are causing mass hysteria by lying to the people. Many insurance companies are under this bombardment in television, radio and mass media. Their Status quo wants no change to their profits or high flying CEO’s making millions of dollars. on patients backs? I want health care reform, for the sake of my step daughter who died of Cancer, because the insurers said it was a pre-existing condition and they couldn’t continue to insure her?