sliding into paranoia

[Guest guest]

on the other end..walked past a store Sunday that had a sign in the window " we

will create any saying into arabic script for henna and permanent tattoos "

different vibes on each end of the country.....

 

 

Paranoia, bigotry go together

 

MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS

TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Dec 25, 2006

 

 

Michael's column appears Mon. and Fri. Contact him at (804)649-6815 or

mwilliams @timesdispatch.com

Bigotry is nothing new in Virginia politics. But it seems to be

experiencing a resurgence at an odd time in our state's history.

 

Virginia is increasingly di verse, its political hue changing from red

to purple. But while one segment of our population embraces change and

inclusion, another clings to fear, intolerance and exclusion.

 

Last week, Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th, cast his lot with the

latter group.

 

In a letter to constituents, he stoked anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim

sentiment at the expense of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a

native-born American and the first Muslim elected to Congress.

 

In so many words, Goode said Muslims need to be kept out of Congress

and America.

 

Goode, of Rocky Mount, was channeling the sort of jingoism that led

Sen. George Allen, R-Va., to derisively toss " Welcome to America " and

" macaca " barbs at a Virginia native of Indian-American descent.

 

Allen was unseated after his mean-spirited comments shed an

embarrassing national spotlight on Virginia. Now comes Goode with his

political potty mouth, heedless of the consequences.

 

 

More than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, paranoia remains

thick.

 

Recently, some riders on Richmond buses took one look at ads in Arabic

script and saw terrorist codes. The ads, which bore such innocuous

messages as " rock, paper, scissors, " were actually placed as part of an

interfaith effort to foster dialogue.

 

In this environment, we need a reasoned and effective response to

terrorism that preserves the rights of U.S. citizens and our

Constitution. We don't need demagogues demonizing an entire religion.

 

Goode has refused to apologize for his views. This makes him a hero to

some. But other readers see a disturbing pattern.

 

" I've lived in Virginia for a while now, and I'm constantly embarrassed

by the racism, intolerance, etc. of some of the elected officials from

the state, and the image that projects of everyone who lives here, "

wrote Ezra Freeman.

 

It's hard to take seriously complaints about pervasive " political

correctness " when some of our high-profile politicians shovel dirt on

such concepts as civility, sensitivity and reason.

 

PC? R.I.P.

 

" Genteel Virginia isn't so genteel anymore, " said Larry J. Sabato,

director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

 

That's true of all U.S. politics, he said. " With YouTube, blogs and the

traditional press and party activists constantly alert on the watch

tower, very little escapes notice anymore. "

 

Sabato has seen the political debate get " harsher, meaner and less

civil in every way. "

 

Politicians will say anything -- but then so will everyone else in the

system, " including average people who have clogged my e-mail with some

of the foulest messages imaginable in the past few years, " he said.

 

Amen to that. My Friday column produced some extreme and scary

reactions. We're not talking the Christmas -- or Christian -- spirit.

 

" The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, " said a president who

guided us through a calamitous depression and a world war.

 

It takes no talent to pander to fear. Provide hope? Now that's a real

gift.

 

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain