Rally incident showed true colors
Recently, Bill Buley, The Garden Island editor, wrote a piece about the need to honestly present both sides of the debate in an forthright and unbiased way.
On Sunday, he wrote the article covering the “rally” held across from the airport, with what I deemed to be a very sympathetic, rather-one-sided slant.
What he failed to report on was an incident that I found to be highly disturbing, and reflects the depths of the real attitude, hatred and bias of these liberal protesters.
There was a young lady there with her probably 6-year-old son. Now, to be honest, this was probably a bad choice on her part, both taking her son, and wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat to an obviously left-wing rally! She was, however, very quiet, and simply filming the rally, I believe for InfoNews.
Suddenly, two young women carrying signs began to circle around her yelling “f@#$ Trump” as loud as they could, in front of her young son! I am sure their attack was in the mold of Maxine Waters’ recent, hate-filled tirade. This total lack of civility is the reason that the discourse in this country has taken such a violent and uncivilized turn. The left feels free to voice their opinion, but anyone with an opposing view is shouted down, intimidated and, in some cases, physically attacked.
The total lack of respect for the 6-year-old was disappointing, and I am sure if this were to happen to THEIR children by someone from the opposing side, the outrage would be all over social media. Plus, the physical intimidation was most likely illegal!
Also, I fail to even understand the reason for this rally, since the separating of children from their “illegal immigrant” parents had already stopped days ago! This was simply part of an orchestrated, nationwide hate rally against Trump. Please, be honest and admit it! This policy began while Obama was president!
I could go on about the difference between “immigration” and “illegal immigration,” but the posted online comments about the article tell me that the calmer, more measured members of our community already know. The total lack of support for the members and reason for the rally speak for themselves.
Barry Dittler, Kapaa
Poor widdle Barry. Did the snowflakes on the left offend your sensitive ears? Here, take this hanky and wipe your tears.
What you fail to comprehend, or even acknowledge, is that a large reason for this uncivil discourse is directly due to the rampant xenophobia on the right, and the vicious, misogynistic and hate-filled rhetoric uttered by your beloved president and others like him.
But my biggest gripe with your letter is your blatant and outrageous lie that the policy of separating immigrant parents from their children “began while Obama was president.” It was NEVER a law or policy under President Obama.
The practice began in April this year when Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled out the zero-tolerance policy.
Here’s what he said on May 7, 2018 during a speech in San Diego: “I have put in place a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for illegal entry on our Southwest border.”
So wrap your mind around that fact, Barry, and quit disseminating fake news.
FWIW: (probably not much) perhaps when Barry says “this policy” he means increased deportation of undocumented immigrants. (minus the separation of parents and children.) That policy was indeed started by Obama which he camouflaged brilliantly by promulgating the rules for DACA and the Dreamers.
Anyway, Obama is hardly innocent of taking a tough stand on immigration. And when one considers that many of those who make up MS13 were deported by Obama, which in turn, caused huge political turmoil in El Salvador (a country the USA has been putting pressure on for decades now, along with most of the other Central American Countries), well, perhaps that’s the purpose of this more aggressive enforcement — destabilization of Central America so Hillary can overthrow the elected government of Honduras (for example)
Excellent letter Barry!
The cognitive dissonance amongst liberals is truly stunning.
Barry Dittler,
You forgot to mention the source of this lack of civility: Donald Trump
Very well written and accurate story. Thank you!
You are right….and you are wrong. The ‘separated’ children have not all yet been returned to their parents and apparently this inept government hs lost contact information for many of them. I recall the MAGA supporters being the ones screaming and acting the fools.
Barry,
You say “Liberal” like it’s an insult. I’m a liberal, like Jesus. You? I’m proud to be a liberal. I try to live my life by liberal values.
You report on an incident, and if true, it is disturbing. However, you can’t paint a whole section of your fellow citizens with a broad brush because of the actions of 2 people. I certainly don’t think that you enjoy grabbing women by the crotch Barry, do you?
Still, watch this, “I find the actions of anyone yelling profanities at someone else to be disturbing and even more so if done on the presence of children. These people were in the wrong and I do not support them. I speak for all liberals everywhere in our condemnation of the incident that you describe.”
Now, President Trump has lied. What have you got to say?
President Trump has assaulted women by his own admission, any comment?
Doesn’t understand the constitution, anything? How about just a recommendation that President Trump take a civics refresher course. Yes?
The policy was started by the previous administration? OK, I don’t believe that is true but does that makes it right? What kind of excuse is that? Have you raised children? Does that kind of lame justification for doing wrong work?
You failed to understand the rally? Sounds like you understand it well. Half the population hates Trump. Yeah, pretty easy to understand that.
David Presley
If Mr. Dittler’s account of his story is accurate, the women who shouted epithets at the woman with her young son were sadly out of line. I say this as someone who has a strong dislike for Comrade Trump.
I could fill a page with examples of similar violence and disgusting language and behavior from the right, but that would sound like excuse-making, so I won’t.
Just DON’T BEHAVE LIKE THIS, folks.
Trump inspires and spreads hate.
Great letter Barry thank you so much. You are right they show their true colors and your letter painted right over them.
“You’ve never had a president, Republican or a Democrat, speak like this and give license to the kind of darkness that you see going on”
“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom”
“This total lack of civility is the reason that the discourse in this country has taken such a violent and uncivilized turn. The left feels free to voice their opinion, but anyone with an opposing view is shouted down, intimidated and, in some cases, physically attacked.”
Change the word “left” to Trump supporters, and you have what America has endured since the Republican primaries started in 2016. Democrats are just giving back in kind. An eye for an eye mentality on both sides.
Politics in America has broken down into two camps who hate each other. It is time to hit the reset button before it really becomes a civil war. Perhaps a new “Peoples Party” that fights for the rights of all citizens and stands against the corporations and the 1%. What we have now is just not working. And all of the people are victims of this Washington orchestrated divide.
On the brighter side, Hawaii might come out of this as a sovereign independent nation. Stranger things have happened.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you Tom, but I do want to point to the vitriol hurled at Sanders voters by the Democratic Establishment, including the DNC and Daily KOS.
And then Clinton’s poor excuse for losing blaming it all on “The Russians”.
But then, Clinton isn’t exactly “Left” or even “Left of Center”. In fact, I consider her to be merely “slightly left of Trump”. The so-called “liberal” issues she supported: gay rights; roe v. wade; DACA; etc. only affect a comparatively small group of people when considering the entire population of the USA.
When it comes to the “rest of us” vs. the Oligarch, Clinton, along with most of the DNC, is absolutely in Trump’s corner. Her policies (and those of every Democratic President since Bill (yep, long list isn’t it) are guaranteed to funnel more wealth to those who already have it all and to take it from “the rest of us”.
Regarding the July 8th letter to the editor “Rally incident showed true colors” about confrontational language addressed to the MAGA hat lady in front of her child, is extremely sad. But when you consider the horrors we are watching this president preside over like separating children from migrants, slapping down our allies while denying Russian interfered in our election, lying to the public constantly, claiming Obama bugged the White House, bullying and name calling anyone not supporting him, has put some people over the edge. Do we ignore Trump calling the press fake and the enemy of the people? Do we ignore the degradation the country suffers under Trump? Is the lady with MAGA cap aware of these things? Is she aware that she is as much as saying it’s all fine with her? For some who find Trump fake and the enemy of the people, apparently it was enough to cause fowl language use. It’s unfortunate that this took place in front of a supporter of our controversial, bulling president.
What a weak, pathetic attempt to defend the confused right wing cult on Kauai. “I went to the rally to directly provoke them with my MAGA hat and they were provoked! Oh my! Shame on them!” Just pathetic.
I’m sure that FOX News hasn’t informed you yet, Dittler; but, virtually nothing has happened since your fat, orange, ranting baby-man declared an end to his baby snatching! Almost nobody is reunited. They’ve lost people, they deported parents and kept the kids; but, they’re not sure where! The entire mess stinks to high heaven, has never stunk like this before, and anyone who defends any of this stinks as well!
The Garden Island appears to have reverted to its policy of vetting comments for political incorrectness (i.e. insufficient left-wing-ism) as well as holding off publishing them to beyond the news cycle when other items force the original article and letters to the editor off the page. So much for the editor’s stated goal of transparency and balance.
True, Obama started deporting more undocumented immigrants that previous administrations. True that there are lots of people who hate Trump. I recall there are a lot of people who hated Obama.
But, why reduce this to an “us” vs “them” question? There must be something that we can all agree on.
Let us start with the fact that a mere 3% of the US military budget could solve world hunger. If that problem were solved, then there wouldn’t be so many immigrants trying to get to someplace on earth where they might not starve to death.
Then let us consider that the US military and US policies in Central America are spending chaos in those countries allowing criminal enterprise to grow. Drug gangs have grown so bold that they murdered over 150 politicians in Mexico. America’s “War on Drugs” created the conditions for these criminals to rise to power. Now the average citizen in these countries fears for their lives and they begin the long trek to the USA to appeal for political asylum — which the Trump administration has made impossible and which is illegal under international law. (Of course, Secretary Clinton didn’t help when she plotted the overthrow of the Democratically elected government of Honduras which caused many political refugees to flee that country)
If one were a cynic, they might conclude that this is America’s policy (created by both Republicans and Democrats) to control the overpopulation of the world.
A cynic might point to the $670/day paid to private concerns to take care of every child separated from their parents as they come across the border and conclude that Corrections Corporation of America has been lobbying both the Republicans and Democrats to create this immigration problem. After all, they are getting rich, rich, rich!
It might just be better if we recognized the expansion of the American Empire for the benefit of a few American Oligarchs is the cause of much of the unrest in the world. If America were to control its lust for expansion and power, world peace might just be possible.
Totally agree with you Barry. I can’t believe people are doing this. It is absolutely disgraceful to do that to another human being. Let alone not having the civility to do this in front of a child.
“Fight for your right to wear MAGA Hats consequence free!”
“You go somewhere looking for trouble, you usually find it!”
You want civility? Please inform our man-child President that his disrespect for those who do not agree with him constantly is at odds with a civil nature. The man is so biased and nasty that he has every Republican and many Democrats cowed. It is possible that in this instance one must fight fire with fire.