A National Disgrace

2009-09-10
Del Walters

In three decades of being in the media I saw something last night I have never seen before.  In an address before both houses of Congress, someone actually had the audacity to call the President of the United States a liar. They didn’t just refuse to applaud as is tradition, but actually shouted the word LIAR.   Sadly it didn’t happen once but at least three times by my count.  As the President continued to speak a stunned Vice President Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi seemed to exchange looks that suggested, “Can you believe we have stooped so low?”  At first even the President seemed to be taken aback, although I believe he was feeling something else…black.  This incident more than any others begs the question; if the president were white would anyone have dared such a public lack of respect for the office and the man who holds it. If the President wasn’t embarrassed I was and I suspect I am not alone.

Politics in Washington is a blood sport, and anyone who believed the election of the first African American president would not open old racial wounds was foolish. Nowhere has that been more apparent than at the many town hall meetings that took place across the nation in the month of August.  Instead of looking like the world’s most successful democracy, at times we looked like those third world general assembly’s that erupted into violence and fist fights when both sides disagreed. You know the ones the anchors used to play at the end of newscasts to laugh at.
To add insult to injury, some of those who believed the President was taking the nation in the wrong direction carried guns to rallies. 

Here’s the problem.  In the last decade America went to war based on a lie. Thousands of Americans lost their lives fighting the war that followed. When hurricane Katrina struck many of those whose jobs it was to help Americans living in Louisiana were instead overseas helping Iraqis. The war and subculture of greed left the country morally and financially bankrupt. Despite that, not once did a single member of Congress show disrespect to President Bush when he addressed congress. We are supposed to be better than as a nation.  We are supposed to be a nation of laws, and when there is disagreement we take out our frustrations at the ballot box.

Here’s the real shame. There were men and women, my aunts and uncles, your aunts and uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers, white and black who were subjected to hoses, dogs and death threats to reach this moment in history.  Despite that, those people sought change through non-violent protest. Rosa Parks could have gotten into a shouting match with the driver of the bus but knew that would detract from the movement.  Instead she decided she just didn’t want to sit in the back of the bus anymore and got arrested for it.  Martin Luther King Jr. could have joined Malcolm in calling for change “By any means necessary,” but instead he wrote some of his most moving speeches while sitting in a Birmingham, Alabama jail. Congressman John Lewis still bears the scars of a vicious beating just trying to get to the other side of a symbolic bridge. It is against that backdrop that I write. They knew that there were good people, black and white who died in the struggle for change. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner all gave their lives for the cause.  Two, Goodman and Schwerner were white.

Last night, a congressman, still unknown, upset over either healthcare reform or a budget deficit had the unmitigated audacity to call the President of the United States a liar spitting in the face of all those who dared believe this country could be different.  Others in the crowd held signs showing their anger at the President’s proposed healthcare plan.  I wonder what would have happened if it were a black president pushing for civil rights, or to desegregate the nation’s schools, or for that matter to end slavery. No those presidents were white, and in this nation’s most turbulent times not one member of congress publicly disgraced them, the way a member of congress tried to last night.

First, Glenn Beck on Fox News called President Obama a racist. Let me say it as clear as I can.  Had I done so at any point in my broadcast career, I would have been fired as Beck should be today.  Lou Dobbs, another network heavyweight continues to challenge the birthplace of the President and has become the titular head of a group that calls itself ‘the Birthers.’ Loosely translated, a black man couldn’t possibly win the presidency outright. He must have cheated. Even though CNN says the issue is no issue, Dobbs persists.  Dobbs too should be fired. Then, as the nation exploded in anger over the issue of healthcare during the month of august I wondered when someone, anyone, any politician on either side of the political aisle would call for calm.  Instead they fanned the fires of hat and distrust. Sarah Palin, the woman who was almost a heartbeat away from the presidency wrote publicly that President Obama’s healthcare plans would result in death panels whereby the government would decide who lived and who died. Small wonder why the truly talented no longer believe higher office is a worthy cause to pursue.
 I suppose I should have expected as much, but for some unexplained reason I still believed this nation could rise above its past prejudices. Sadly the words of a single congressman at last night’s address that was heard above the millions who voted for change proved me wrong.   If it seems I’m angry, I am. We all should be.