I am sure that you do not consider yourself a racist.

And I know you don't want to think your neighbor is.

Or that nice man that coaches your kid's soccer team.

Although preference for people who look and act like us is hard-wired into the stems of our brains, we all like to think that our higher-level brain functions have been consciously developed by our parents, our schools and our churches to override those feelings of fear and distrust regarding others who have darker skin or who speak with a foreign accent or who worship in a different way.

We like to think that we are tolerant and fair-minded in the great American tradition. We want to believe we and our children actually do judge people "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character".

And yet, something is keeping African Americans and other people of color out of Lake Country, and it's not some crazy old fireman running them all out with his dog.

Why are people here in Lake Country so adamantly opposed to mass transit between here and the city?

Why ARE there so few people of color and Muslims in Lake Country? Is it because they can't afford our lifestyle? You know that's not true. Milwaukee has many thousands of minorities who have achieved middle and upper economic status, and could afford to live here. Why do so very few of them choose to live here in this beautiful place?

If you want a glimpse of the racial dynamic here in Lake Country, check out the discussion going on over on Ed Furey's blog.

Read this and tell me: If you were a young black woman who just graduated from Madison with a master's degree in International Marketing and were being courted by GE Healthcare, would you have second thoughts about buying a home here?

If you were an Indian entrepreneur who just sold your software company to a firm in Brookfield, and read this discussion, would you want your kids to go to school here?

Racism is rampant everywhere, and if we are honest with ourselves, we each struggle with it.

This is Barack Obama's - and any black person's challenge.

The language of intolerance is not without consequences. Unfortunately, the intolerant are too weak minded to understand the consequences of their own words.

So-called "conservatives", taking their cue from the "You're with us, or with the terrorists" jargon of their President, love to use the word "hate".

While they constantly accuse those who disagree with them of being "haters", as in "Bush-hater", which is practically a proper noun in their writings, the right-wing began to fall into its current pattern of extremism during the Clinton administration. Clinton is still a favorite target of right-wing haters.

The appropriation of the Conservative ideology by the extreme right-wing has its roots in racism, in reaction to the human-rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, which threatened their social privileges and illusions of superiority. George Wallace nearly rode a wave of fear and hatred to the Presidency, and seven elections later George Bush succeeded in re-mobilizing the hate movement, unifying racists, homophobes, religious fundamentalists and the just plain greedy to form an alliance that narrowly lost the popular vote in the 2000 election.

George Bush's handlers, in fact give some credit to George Bush, were smart enough to recognize that hate is a powerful weapon if you are willing to set your personal morality aside and use it. This is the essence of fascism, and the current culture of right-wing hate lacks only the label. Let's call it what it is; fascist.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 gave rise to a wave of terror among the so-called conservatives, and the language of hate and extreme pseudo-patriotism felt empowering to those whose moral values are insecure, and soothed their fears of a world that is changing around them.The Bush administration stoked this fear and loathing in order to carry out it's dastardly crimes against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. The President, the Vice-President and top members of the administration cultivated hatred as a national policy, and bear personal responsibility.

The radio wave of right-wing hate has subsided somewhat, but it is not hard to find both local and national loudmouths who use ignorance, intolerance and hate to get their dim-witted listeners foaming at the mouth.

Of course, Fox News is now giving these hate-mongers a run for their money, with outright demagoguery masquerading as television news. There is a lot of money to be made pandering to the fearful and weak-minded.

Right here on these pages the implied violence of the right is on prominent display. For disagreeing with the president, I have repeatedly been accused of hating George Bush, the "troops" and my country.

Writers such as Amy Geiger-Hemmer and Jim Hayett frequently base entire blog posts on a message of hate and intolerance. Their comments on other's blogs are peppered with the word "hate".

In their ignorance, they think that whipping out the h-word wins an argument. What they and the right-wing media are actually doing is promoting violence and death. Yet, they deny any personal responsibility for the violence that they promote. Any personal responsibility for the wars that they continue to promote but decline to fight.

Last weekend, one of their kind decided to put his hate into action, and took a shotgun into a Unitarian Universalist church, a church that actively supports human rights and social justice for all people.

This is the end product of the culture of right-wing hate. If you preach intolerance and hate, you are promoting violence.

Personal responsibility may be denied, but it can not be escaped. I hope your God grants you grace.

 

Some years back, one of my personal heroes, Neil Young, recorded the song “This Note’s for You”, which was a play on the very popular Budweiser ad campaign at that time, featuring a dog named Spuds McKenzie - “This Bud’s for you”. This was in the era when rock and roll was making the transition from counter culture to big business. It’s a great tune.

One verse goes:

Ain't singin' for Miller
Don't sing for Bud
I won't sing for politicians
Ain't singin' for Spuds
This note's for you.

As far as I know, the “Community Bloggers” writing in this space are totally independent of the editorial and news operations of the Journal-Sentinel, which owns the Lake Country Reporter, Kettle Moraine Index, etc. We receive no direction, and no compensation or any other consideration from the J-S Corporation for our work. At least I don’t. I blog because I feel the need to generate public consideration and discussion of issues that I think are important to me and to you.

I believe the previous paragraph applies to all of the Community Bloggers. From this point on, please be clear that I am speaking only for myself.

A month or so back, the editors of this site began integrating actual news reports into the same format and directory as our blogs.  I’m sure you have noticed this. I expressed concern, and got some support from fellow bloggers at that time, that news and opinion were mixed without any obvious distinction between the two. The editors made an attempt for some delineation, at least on some of the pages.

It’s not that I feel ownership of the space. But I believe there is an expectation of readers that news and opinion will be kept separated, as much as is possible. The lack of visual distinction between news stories written by professional journalists, who have a professional obligation to strive for objectivity, and the unabashedly personal opinions of us bloggers is troubling to me. Perhaps my expectations of the media have become quaint, but I think that editorials should be confined to the editorial page.

Journalistic ethics also demand that the business side of the company must not influence the reporting of the news. News coverage (or non-coverage) should not be for sale.

Now, the Journal-Sentinel Company has begun selling “blog” space. Or at least space that is visually indistinguishable from a blog, and is mixed right into the blog listings.

I have a real issue with this.

This program of integrating news, opinion, and now advertising in this space is troubling to me. I’d like to know what you think.

Please comment, and let me know if it troubles you that the blog you are reading might actually be a subtly written advertisement. The editors are listening.

Just for the record, this blog is not for sale.