On Wednesday, 16 September 2009, the Associated Press carried this:
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s oldest son defended his father against a claim by former President Jimmy Carter that the congressman’s outburst during a speech by President Barack Obama was “based on racism.”
Responding to an audience question at a town hall at his presidential center in Atlanta, Carter said Tuesday that Wilson’s outburst was also rooted in fears of a black president.
“I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”
But Wilson’s son disputed that.
“There is not a racist bone in my dad’s body,” said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general in South Carolina. “He doesn’t even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won’t comment on former President Carter, because I don’t know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it’s just not in him.”
“It’s unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree — and appropriately disagree — on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it’s absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race.”
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Our note:
After former President Carter’s recent remarks, as well as those by many other Liberals with access to the media, some of us at CAJ were left wondering how on earth Barack Obama was elected if, as charged, Americans are nothing but red-necked racists who don’t want to see an African American holding our country’s highest office. Many people around the nation hoped General Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice would run for President in the last election. Aren’t they black, too?
If we use our common sense, we can only arrive at a very few conclusions. So, perhaps people like Jimmy Carter, himself an outspoken anti-Semite and ‘reformed’ racist, would think before they speak. Charges against conservatives and libertarians such as racism are beginning to lose their sting.
We can disagree with each other while we still have our First Amendment rights. Intelligent, thoughtful people know better than to smear the discourse with racism, sexism, and other baseless accusations of bias.
