Pelosi Warns Of Violence Over Heated Rhetoric, Chokes Up

[democracy1st]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's eyes watered Thursday as she called for the rhetorical heat to be turned down across the country, and warned that such words can lead to violence -- a phenomenon she witnessed herself in San Francisco.

"I think we all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words. We are a free country and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance," she said.

"I saw," she added, choking up, "I saw this myself in the late seventies in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric was very frightening and it gave--it created a climate in which violence took place."

Riots in San Francisco in the seventies were punctuated by police beatings and assassinations, most notably of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978.

Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California and was shot by former supervisor and arch-conservative Dan White.

"I wish that we all again would curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made, with the understanding that some of the ears this is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume," Pelosi said.

She stressed again that people are free to speak out. "But I also think they have to take responsibility for any incitement they may cause," she said.



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/pelosi-warns-of-violence_n_289999.html

[theoldman]

1. I totally agree with her.

I know some nut cases that have been worked up by listening to all the right wing propaganda. That is the good news. The bad news is that there are many worse nut cases than the ones I know.

[glinda]

2. What is happening needs serious public addressing. Also, some news people & others need to be fined.

The end result of this will be harm to the President or others. I have no tolerance for this and neither should our Government. I think that it is the responsibility of everyone now that has a public voice, to curtail this crap and to bring it to the fore that these people are inciting too great a risk for violence. IMHO we are now a Country in peril. We easily can be seen as vulnerable. This is of National Security interest.

[Richard D]

3. I so agree

I'd say that within six months we're going to see some serious violence and loss of life unless this direction isn't stopped.

[glinda]

8. I predict very soon. Then watch all hell break loose.

[Selatius]

12. All you need is one nutjob with a car bomb and a twisted mission stuck in his head.

Then the bloodshed will begin.

[get the red out]

4. She's right

This needs to be addressed prior to violence, not a bunch of finger pointing and deflecting after violence.

[Kingofalldems]

5. Pigboy, Beck et al will take responsibility for nothing

[bullwinkle428]

16. This is just more red meat for those soulless bastards, but I'm

still very heartened that she's putting it out there like this.

[grantcart]

6. good for Madam Speaker

[butterfly77]

7. Yes,I do agree with her and..

we need to stop pretending that somethings are not racist when we all know that they are just because the media says it isn't so doesn't mean its the truth. GO JIMMY CARTER!GO!:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Mrs. Overall]

9. I'm so glad she said this--

for those of us in the San Francisco area in the late 70's--the assassinations of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk were shocking and deplorable.

I'll never forget that day and I don't ever want to see anything like it repeated.

[Cha]

10. Yes, it needs to be said..to get it out there so maybe

just maybe someone will think twice. And, our Speaker of the House is out in front with calls for "taking responsibility for their actions".. while others like bech(cover of time rag) are ecouraging violence.

[Selatius]

11. Eventually, if things don't stop escalating, we're going to resemble Northern Ireland.

Tit-for-tat violence easily escalates into a vicious cycle with no way out.

[redqueen]

13. I'm glad she's speaking up about this.

It's about time.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. She should have put this in the bag before the August recess

By whatever means necessary.

No stupid townhalls.
No giant teabagger marches.
No flunkies with guns on their backs at the President's healthcare rallies.

No endless parade of Congresscritters and Senators fielding questions from Pus Limbaugh and Beck's brigade of the proudly ignorant spewing forth progressively dumber talking points like "death panel" and "constitution" and my favorite - "TORT REFORM" as though they had an IQ of 54 and sandpaper underwear.

[SIMPLYB1980]

15. I'm glad Pelosi spoke out on this.

We need more people to before something bad happens, and I don't just mean with Obama.

[defendandprotect]

17. This is simply the age-old patriarchal pattern of demonizing enemies . . .

and it works well for exploitation --

first make your enemies "inferior" --

then no one cares about them!

And does it create intolerance and violence -- of course it does!!!

Right wing propaganda works -- but not for democracy -- !!!

************************************************************