Obama shelves canned speech for anti-violence oration tonight

[BeyondGeography]

<MILWAUKEE - What was intended to be a raucous campaign stop with music and balloons turned into a somber oration Monday night as Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama called on Americans to oppose the forces that lead to acts of violence like the campus shooting at Virginia Tech.

<...Society has tolerated, ignored, even glorified violence, but that will only end when people push back against hopelessness and despair, he told a crowd of about 4,000 people at the downtown Milwaukee Theater.

Obama turned to notes just once to read an excerpt from the speech Robert Kennedy gave after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to death in 1968. In that speech Kennedy said society was degraded by its tolerance of violent acts.

"We continue to be degraded by murders, crime and all manner of abuse perpetrated on our children, and Bobby Kennedy's right _ we tolerate it," Obama said. "Things haven't changed as much as they should have in the past 40 years."

He predicted that the Virginia shooting would lead to specific questions about the gunman's motive and access to weaponry. But he said he hoped the national discussion would broaden to consider the ubiquity of violence, even in lesser forms.

The recent controversial comments of former radio host Don Imus constitute a form of violence because the words are degrading to young women, he said. Federal programs that hurt people by providing inadequate education and health care are another form, and even violence elsewhere degrades American society if we turn a blind eye, he said.>

http://www.rhinelanderdailynews.com/articles/2007/04/16/ap-state-wi/d8oi36d80.txt

[ripple]

1. Well said, Senator.

And certainly worthy of a rec.

[Colobo]

2. Good for Obama!

[derby378]

3. I disagree with Obama's apparent statement that words = violence

Verbal and emotional abuse exist, this is true. But Obama needs to keep the focus on events such as Columbine and Virginia Tech instead of straying off the radar screen.

[ben_thayer]

4. Too often

the words are the seeds of violence

[BeyondGeography]

6. The focus on the fantastic invariably becomes a fetish, entertainment even

while the root mundane causes of our malady go unaddressed. That's what Obama's getting at and I agree.

[ThomCat]

9. Words are a form of violence.

Discrimination is proof of that. Words have the power to create vast, violent inequalities and disparities. Words have the power to incite brutality. Words have the power to dehumanize people.

Words = violence. It's a lesson we on the left need to learn and never forget.

[derby378]

17. While I see where you're coming from...

I would argue that words only have the power to dehumanize if we let them have that power.

[ThomCat]

18. Words have the power to dehumanize you

if OTHER people let them. That's the problem. Nobody needs your permission to treat you like a lesser person, or like you're not even human. Prejudice is imposed, not accepted.

[derby378]

19. Duly noted - and well said

:hi:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

21. Words can wound, and, they are fearsome weapons when employed by a complicit media.

MKJ

[draft_mario_cuomo]

5. Good job by Obama (I am recommending this thread)

[illinoisprogressive]

7. Go Barack! I Bet those 4,000 had alot to ponder afterwards.

[quiet.american]

8. Don't you love this shite: ..."The *partisan crowd* greeted Obama with a warm reception..."

It can't just be a crowd of Americans who have come out to hear what a candidate for President of the United States has to offer, oh no, it must be a "partisan crowd."

That reporter would probably get the shock of their life to know that in a crowd of 4,000 people, there were probably a good deal of "non-partisans" and even gasp, Republicans, in the audience.

(As for Obama's comments, he continues to amaze me with his masterful eloquence.)

[goclark]

10. Make America Think again and seek higher ground again..

GOBAMA!
:applause:

:yourock:

[Colobo]

11. Yes he does!

[Cha]

12. Corporatemediawhores and fascists

want us divided.

[goclark]

13. And people like Obama and Edwards want us together

I'll work night and day to make that happen.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. K&R

[Dr Fate]

15. Probably the best words I've heard on this so far. n/t

n/t

[w4rma]

16. That's nice, but does he have any policies that he'd like folks to get behind on this subject?

Or is he just using his somewhat large podium to talk?

[abburdlen]

20. Does everything need a position paper?

What's wrong with taking advantage of a spotlight to remind people that violence in all it's forms are toxic to society?