Like everyone else in the world (HBDers, Rush Limbaugh and those of their ilk excluded, of course), I was glued to the tv, Internet and smartphone for the newest updates on the truly horrific series of events that has unfolded I Haiti in the past week, where now estimates of 100,000 or more are feared dead, and that’s just for starters. Entire sections of the country is in ruins, following a devastating earthquake that measured 7 on the scale; millions are displaced, hundreds of thousands injured. Talk about something out of Dante’s Inferno. Wow.
That the whole world mobilized to lend aid and comfort to a People who has known nothing but pain and anguish for so long, was for his wary and weary soul, I sight to behold. People from as far as Turkey, China and Australia, brought medical supplies, food and water, sophisticated listening and recuse equipment, highly training “sniffer” dogs and the like, and all on the run up to MLK’s actual birthday and the official holiday observing his life and what it means for our nation, not only made me feel proud to be an American, or one of African-descent, but proud to be a Human Being.
But good vibes were not to last. No sooner than the earthquake itself happened, Conservative icon and fixture, radio show talk host Rush Limbaugh, wasted no time at all in suggesting that a Rahm Emanual-led White House would take advantage of such a mammoth tragedy to further the Obama Administration’s agenda, namely the much beleagured Healthcare Bill. Limbaugh was of course, referring to remarks attributed to Emanuel in the waning days of the 2008 Presidential campaign, and the early days of the Obama Presidency, that Democrats in particular, should never let a tragedy go to waste, that it can be exploited for political gain. I don’t know for certain if that is indeed what Obama’s Chief of Staff said, but it has been attributed to him by Limbaugh and others on the Right, and to be honest, it wouldn’t be the first or last time such a sentiment would be uttered by a public official. Everyone knows that Politics is a nitty gritty bloodsport, a most cynical one at that. So, Limbaugh’s assertions along those lines don’t bother me.
It was his follow-up comments that took me aback-he suggested that the Haitian earthquake would be a perfect time for Obama to “burnish his image in the Black community, among the light-skinned AND dark-skinned Blacks” and so on. My immediate response was WTF does “light-skinned and dark-skinned Blacks” have to do with the discussion, even if what Limbaugh asserts about Obama was indeed true? How does that impact what happened in Haiti either way-a disaster that hit the “light and dark-skinned” Haitians equally to begin with? What was that all about? What’s up with that?
Then, my next reaction was, how can Limbaugh sit there and say such a thing, at a time when TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HATIANS ARE DEAD, through NO fault of their own? And they’re Hatians anyway, not American voters-how can Limbaugh be so out there to say such a thing? Where is his sense of basic decency? Of basic Humanity?
But Limbaugh, as if to outdo his own self, takes it one step further-when asked by a caller to his radio show as to whether he should donate funds to the disaster relief effort, Limbaugh responds that he and all Americans already have donated-it’s called the income tax. Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann noted later that night, that all of the major Republican-friendly news organizations, websites and the like-which included Townhall.com, Fox News and even Sean Hannity’s website-all had banners on their front pages to the Red Cross and how to donate. Limbaugh’s site had a banner up as to how one could purchase gold coins.
*SMH*
Having seen such a display by Limbaugh, I knew it was only a matter of time before our erstwhile racists, er, friends in that corner of cyberspace known as the HBDsphere would chime in-and they didn’t disappoint. OneSTDV, the self-proclaimed “iconoclast muser on all things racial” promptly asked whether we as a nation had a moral obligation to give aid to Haiti-because, you know, they’re Black and Dumb? Prime, from the website Beta Revolution, posts a few weeks before the earthquake in Haiti, about how some of the kids there are being sold into slavery, apparently by their own parents/caregivers-of course, the in-between-the-lines implication here is that see!-Blacks have always sold themselves into slavery, and hence, it’s really not us White guys’ fault afterall!
As Thugtician would say: hock, and spit.
Of the dozens, possibly hundreds of famous quotes I’ve committed to memory over the years, one immediately sprang to mind over the past week’s events: that tough times don’t shape one’s character-they reveal it. And in so doing, the words of Limbaugh, OneSTDV and Prime, among a not insignificant number of others, have, by their own hands, revealed themselves for who and what they truly are: not “iconoclasts” or “politically incorrect” or “scientific” minds looking to shakeup the status quo-but as good ole fashioned racists, who in the cases of the latter two instances so mentioned, need to find a new way to package their rank bigotry, racism and hypocrisy. At least Limbaugh’s got the balls to show his face everyday on webcam.
And since this is King Day, both OneSTDV and Prime have made their entires on the blog devoted to MLK’s legacy, in their twisted way. I could slice and dice their weak-kneed logic once again, but by now, everyone knows the deal-they’re not worth the trouble. Maybe it’s a good thing that they’re facing evolutionary oblivion. Perhaps what Darwin said about Natural Selection was correct afterall-what Woman of any consequence would want to get with such rank losers?
Now adjourn your pitiful, pathetic, pseudo-intellectual, no action getting arses…
The Obsidian
