K Gardner

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sun Mar-23-08 11:19 AM
Original message

BREAKING: Obama Supporters At Democratic Underground Say: "Not This Time!"

March 23, 2008
For Immediate Release

It would seem that even the internet blogs and forums, widely known for being unregulated, can say "enough is enough".

After Barack Obama's stirring speech, A More Perfect Union on March 18, and buoyed by the endorsement of Bill Richardson, posters at the progressive site Democratic Underground.com have called for an end to the divisive rhetoric that has marred this primary season and has grown to untolerable lengths since the controversy over Jeremiah Wright injected a nasty element of race into the campaign.

Posters are being encouraged not to respond to inflammatory and racially-motivated posts and to "Let It Sink", a refrain which has come to signify the effort to clean up this particular internet forum. Already, the success of the effort is apparent, as topics with racially divisive and inflammatory titles quickly disappear from view. Supposedly a moderated forum, it would seem the influx of new posters and those intent on creating an atmosphere of hate and division, have outnumbered the ability to moderate it. The posters are taking matters into their own hands and are being rewarded with a return to civility and ability to discuss issues of merit.

Not quite satisfied with that, many posters have joined with others on sites such as Daily Kos to bring pressure on MSNBCs wall-to-wall coverage of Jeremiah Wright and what they consider continous race-baiting by commentators such as Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough.

In his speech, Barack Obama told America and the world that we could continue with business as usual or stand up and say, "Not This Time". Much like the grassroots effort which has fueled his campaign, the grassroots on the internet are taking up this call and protesting with their keyboards: Not This Time.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

Millions across the nation, from sea to shining sea and to the grassroots of the internet, evidently agree on one thing: Yes We Can Heal this Nation.

BREAKING: Obama Supporters At Democratic Underground Say: "Not This Time!"

LET THE HATRED SINK! WE WON'T BE SIDETRACKED , NOT THIS TIME!