Reaction to the Idiot who Wanted to Kill Obama

TOBY MORTON
For Mayor



Hello, Friends,

I don't know if anyone heard, but a guy got arrested recently for allegedly threatening to kill the President.  He was a private security guard working at Newark Airport.  I got a coupla thoughts about that.

First, we must all, as Americans who enjoy the benefits and freedoms of democracy, remember that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, even if they allegedly declare they want to dismember the President and feed his parts to animals, and are found to be in possession of hollow-tip "cop-killer" bullets. (I'm sure there's a legit explanation for them, like, "hey, I was just buying them so that some REAL criminal couldn't!", or "hey, they were just stocking-stuffers for my nephew, I was going to fill them with candy!)

If the allegations prove to be true, this is a deplorable situation for the following reasons:

1) It is deplorable that the right-wing rhetoric by some pundits and preachers has come to such a high pitch that we should see someone try to take a step to enacting the logical outcome of this rhetoric.You might not like the President, but you can't do violence to him as your solution.  Because, whether or not like the President, the office is bigger than the man, and when you threaten violence to the President, you are threatening us, the people, whom he represents. 

And don't give me that, "oh my God!  But THIS guy is ushering in Fascism," or "Communism", or whatever other crap people say about our presidents when they don't like them.  That is BS, and if you don't realize it is BS, then track down one of your good American neighbors who emigrated from the Soviet Union, or China, or Haiti, and ask them if our country compares.  Because until you have lived in a police state, or talked with someone who has, in order to understand the horrors involved, you have no idea what you are talking about.  It was BS when the left said it about Bush and it's BS now.  

2) It will be deplorable if this man is convicted and he is treated w/any more compassion than the Gitmo detainees. A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist, and by any other name would smell as beastly. Or, you could reverse it and say that it is deplorable that the Gitmo detainees currently are treated worse than a person accused of any crime in this country, because they lack the basic rights of the accused that our country holds so dear. It's one or the other. A little fairness is all I'm asking for.

3) It will be MOST deplorable that this guy was hired in the first place. This is a big problem all over the Metro area. After 9/11, we saw armies of private security guards park their rears in our government buildings and do nothing. Don't blame the guards! Sure, there are some good ones.  But there are lots of worthless ones.  These companies don't screen applicants well, don't pay a decent wage, and offer little training. What do we expect?

And why do we have all these private security guards? So we can feel more secure. Well, currently, that's about as effective using a chicken cutlet to call your mother in Florida and wish her "happy birthday".  I feel like when I walk by a private security guard in the morning and flash my ID, there are two people working: there's the security guard, who's acting like what they're doing is making me safer, and there's me, who's acting like I believe that they're keeping me safer. The only difference is, I'm not being paid for my half of the operation. And, I'll tell ya', the amount of times I've done this, I think security companies owe me a pretty fat check.

Better training, better screening, and better wages for security guards. If they're doing important work, treat them like professionals. And that holds true whether this guy is guilty or innocent.

Yours in the Struggle,

Toby Morton
www.tobymorton.com