Contemptible British racists like Lessing should devote more of their time to stopping their own government’s murder of Irish women & children and keep their gin-blossomed snouts out of what is more properly the business of decent Americans.

Go for it, Obama! Dinosaurs like Lessing are over in Europe - where they belong - and are clearly not part of our nation’s destiny.

You and Lessing are wrong so don't worry. Any president runs the risk of being assassinated. Look at history. Even wildly popular presidents, such as Teddy and Regan had assassination attempts made on their lives. Was it because of their color? No, it was because they stood for change, and excited some quack to take a gun and do the unthinkable. I believe racists have other issues to resolve, but I give them credit that they aren't going to run to their guns and start mowing down successful Blacks. Look at Colin Powell or Condi.

Dave, I couldn't finish reading this post, it is so upsetting on a number of different levels. I am now going to find Blanchette, Millsap or Kershner, in that order.

Dave,
This post is the "Elephant in the Room".. the fear is based in my view not on Senator Obama's skin color. The fear is based on the Sea Change that he represents.. which will upset the power balance and structure in our out of check world.

We "assasinate" our soldiers each day in the Gulf and elswhere.. we assasinated 50,000 plus soldiers in Viet Nam..

Each of these brave soldiers took the mantle that had attached to it the potential for an untimely death.

I believe we should not expect any less of any of our leaders in the legislature, or as heads of states and state.

Senator Obama is a brave man.
Senator Obama knows full well about his mortality.
Senator Obama is not any more fearful of his demise than any of us that have served.

We can expect no less of our leaders than we expect of the average citizen soldier/cop/firefighter/etc etc.

He'd not have entered the arena if he was a fear full man.

Senator Clinton would not have entered the arena if she was not a brave woman.

john

for a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents including their participation in the assassination of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King see
campusactivism.org
click on home in upper left
click on forum in upper right
scroll down to FBI WATCH
over 100 pages

Thank yo ufor bringing this topic up in a very neutral way so that your readers can react in the way they wish.

Like you, I wonder if Lessing's thoughts on the matteer is useless "prattle" as you said. Yes, when someone who is Nobel Laureate, an extremely high honor in the pursuit of human advancement and peace, says something publicly,
It is good to stop and consider it.

I'm not saying agree with it. Perhaps use the info proactively.

At a time when the future of our country is about to drasticly change (with the advent of a new president), I IMPLORE your readership to RESPOND to what they hear and read with mind and heart. What I have just read of them, there is only REACTIVENESS- a reflex of fear.

Come on, People, get it together and pay attention.

David,

What's the answer, then? Should Mr. Obama not run so as not to risk the social upheaval that might theoretically result from his assassination? Should we just stick with 'safe', white-bread, Protestant males for our Presidents?

Do we let the bullies win based on threats alone?

Obama has more to fear from the pharma-corporations, insurance companies, oil companies and military hardware mongers than a few pathetic racists. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but when you start messin' with billion dollar a year profits, people in high places get a little upset. These people evaluate EVERYTHING in terms of cost vs. benefit. Its not hard to find some poor schlub to pull the trigger or push a button. The best protection Obama can get is to pick a VeePee that will carry on any changes that Obama starts.

If a crack-pot kills the president, that's a tragedy. If another kills the VP, that's too much of a coincidence to risk. Cost vs. benefit.

Lessing is saying what a lot of people are thinking, so I can't fault her for that. If she hadn't said it, Norman Mailer probably would have. But let's keep in mind that Lessing is first and foremost a novelist. Obama's vaulting into front-runner status has many elements that would make him a great protagonist in a book. And the tragic story arc would be for him to die prematurely at the height of his promise, as if there is some kind of self-destructive American inevitability to that plot line. It's a story that Philip Roth might write. More than anything, though, Lessing's comment speaks to how Europeans regard Americans as irrational and violent. And I think she's right in many regards. If you were around to see what happened to Bobby Kennedy after his biggest primary victory, you can be forgiven if you feel a lot of apprehension about what could happen as this campaign marches on. I am glad each and every candidate has a lot of Secret Service protection.

If it was so easy to assassinate a President these days then I would fair to reckon that Bush and Cheney would have been long gone. If anyone tried to take Obama out, it would be an inside job made out to be by a KKK member of some such.

Part of what is needed to protect Obama is to make sure that the VP also has similar values (I'm thinking of John Edwards here) and also that the people of America make it loud and clear that any such action would not be passively accepted.

Good afternoon, Netizens...

I wish to thank everyone for their thoughts on this somewhat contentious piece I posted, and there are a lot of really thought-provoking responses covering a broad spectrum of political thought.

As in many cases, I sometimes write things that I know beforehand will cause people to stop and think about various alternative points of view that they otherwise might not consider. Lessings statements were just one such case, and I welcome and embrace the tide of change that our current Democratic candidates represent. I sincerely hope that Lessing is wrong, but she gave me pause and made me think about matters, which is also a good thing.

What John Olsen, Zelda J. Grey and others have stated are definitely aspects which warrant careful consideration, as well.

A question asked which I feel is highly relevant is what J. Grey asks, do we let the bullies win based upon our fears alone, or conversely, can we as a Nation embrace and accept change as part of a normal social and political evolution?

I believe both Obama and Clinton represent change, each in their own ways. The question I believe raised by Lessing is, is our generation of Americans ready to accept that change without resorting to violence?

I, too, am glad that both candidates have high levels of Secret Service protection, for I wonder in my heart of hearts if Lessing might not be right.

The first thing I would like to see happen is for people to stop sanctifying Obama. I am an Obama supporter, but it bothers me that people have begun to mythologize him. He's a human being with enormous talent and high principles, but he is not the incarnation of King Arthur, El Cid, Luke Skywalker or "24"'s David Palmer. More than anything, I fear that he will succumb to the American tradition of elevating a hero and then tearing him apart when he makes a mistake.

Rest assured Lessing's words are nothing more than feeble old lady feminist rhetoric. She said what she did to try to steer attention away from the momentum Obama has to winning the Democrat nomination. Remember this lady was once married to a member of the communist party so I am sure she learned a few tricks of spreading propaganda.

What a stupid thing to say!

How can what I said be stupid Eve ? Its a fact. Lessing is old, a feminist, and was married to a member of the communist party. What else do you want ?

Pretty sure Norman Mailer will never say this.

Norman Mailer will never say anything else.

"The first thing I would like to see happen is for people to stop sanctifying Obama. I am an Obama supporter, but it bothers me that people have begun to mythologize him."

Zelda,

I share your irritation.

But I think a society that has always needed its 'larger than life' heroes has become so brainwashed by the incessant deluge of pop culture and media 'programming' (several interesting possible connotations to that word) that we simply can no longer avoid the glassy-eyed stare and the slack-jawed smile when it comes to public figures who a unavoidably thrust before us in the blinding glare of the spotlight.

Not this is anything new.

We have become the ancient Roman plebes thronging to the Colosseum for our ration of bread and circuses - cheering for the latest gladiatorial superstar while secretly hoping for him to stumble and fall so we can scream for the blood of the hero we only moments ago idolized.

Dave: Your comments are very interesting, and I have only one quibble. The idea that violent racists are concentrated in small, rural areas is, so to speak, an urban myth. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which charts such groups, shows that the vast majority of violent racists of all stripes live in urban areas. The news media just finds it much more interesting to cover such nuts when they hole up in a rural compound, than if they occupy an apartment in a big city. For every Richard Butler there are many Travis Bickles.

It's surprising that Lessing won a prize for literature. You'd think she could come up with something better to say. Guess she won't be voting for Obama then?
Anyway, if Bush has lasted this long I don't think Obama has anything to worry about.

Newsworthynick, I agree with you up to a point. I'm familiar with the SPLC's data and "hate" maps which do, indeed, show that racist groups are clustered in large urban areas. That is to be expected though since there are all kinds and quantities of "special interest" groups in large population centers. What I don't know and can't discern from SPLC's data is whether the number of racist groups in some towns, cities and regions is dispproportionate to their populations. Do Spokane/CDA have about the number of hate groups one would expect in metro areas this size or do we have more than the norm? Hmmm...maybe Bill Morlin knows.

Just a few words to provide some context for what Lessing said. Doris Lessing grew up in Rhodesia and the problem of racism in British colonial Africa is one of the principal themes of her writing. Given her sense of racial injustice, her comments are somewhat understandable.

Good morning, Netizens...

zelda writes:

That is to be expected though since there are all kinds and quantities of "special interest" groups in large population centers. What I don't know and can't discern from SPLC's data is whether the number of racist groups in some towns, cities and regions is dispproportionate to their populations. Do Spokane/CDA have about the number of hate groups one would expect in metro areas this size or do we have more than the norm? Hmmm...maybe Bill Morlin knows.

A brief overview of the SPLC's hate map this morning sprang an interesting entry, one that I do not entirely understand. Among the hate groups listed on the map for Washington State was an entry here in Spokane for St. Michael's Parish/Mount St. Michael overlooking Spokane listed as having a group based upon "general hate" (the SPLC's terminology).

I am non-Catholic, and therefore I do not understand the various theological distinctions between the Catholic Church and Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, AKA, Mount St. Michael. I did, however, remember Francis Schuckardt, its founder, and his scandalous fall from grace back in 1984 over claims of child abuse and sexual impropriety, but until now I had made no association between it and race hatred.

You might want to read http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=1302
and see what kind of hatred we have right here in our back yard. It certainly caught me unaware. From what I read they are stongly anti-semitic and have quite a history of it.

Dave, That’s very interesting about Mount St. Michael. I haven’t looked at the “hate map” for several years, so it would be of interest to know when the group was added to the SPLC list. Like you, I remember the scandal with Francis Schuckardt in the 80s. As I recall, his group was identified with the Tridentine Latin Rite and doesn’t recognize any of the Catholic Church’s progressive changes after the Vatican II reforms in the 60s. So they don’t recognize any pope after that time period as being legitimate. When I was a child attending a local Catholic parochial school, there was some guy belong to some Catholic lay group called the Blue Legion of Mary (that’s what I recall it was named) who came to the school to give a hell-fire and brimstone sermon about the how the godless communists were going to get us because we were all horrible 10-year-old sinners. We were scared to death. I heard later that the guy was Francis Schuckardt but I don’t know if this is true. I also heard that his Blue Legion of Mary evolved (devolved?) into the Mt. St. Michael’s group. The anti-Semitic angle is news to me, but entirely plausible.