"Race" has reared its ugly head again as a part of the political discourse.    The signs you see at Tea Parties are not ALL racist, but many have been.   In fact, there have been enough examples of blatant racism that the Left has neatly packaged the protests into a little box and labeled the entire movement, "racist". 

Now I don't want to defend the "tea baggers".   But I think it is important that we try to understand why they believe the way they do.   And putting it all down to race is not accurate.   The truth is that many of the anti-health care crowd do harbor racist feelings.   But for some it is an underlying part of their anger.   They truly believe (even if they're wrong) that the country they love is under attack from within.   (It's kind of like what we felt from 2001 to 2008.)   

Why is it important to understand their fears?    I mean regardless of the amount of noise they make, they are not a majority opinion.   But their concern for fiscal responsibility (even in the warped form they offer it to America as) is a concern of more than just the far Right.   And for those on the Left who are NOT concerned about fiscal responsibility....you should be!  Independents and many of the "Blue Dog" Democrats are also very concerned.   And their support is extremely flexible.  You don't want to lose it.

But it's also important that we understand the range of the concerns, fears and paranoia of the movement.  Because some of the fears can be answered.

 Your little old grandmother who is certain that Obama's Health Care proposals are going to result in death panels, may believe that because it's what she's heard from the girls at the bridge club.  Your dealing calmly with her may help sway her opinion.  The Christian who lives next door may not have a racist bone in her body, but she objects to government funded abortions.  Your time spent explaining (even though you don't agree with her stance) that the upcoming legislation does not provide abortion-on-demand money may make an impression on her.  Because you're her neighbor.  You're not the evil politician her minister warned her about.   The small business man you buy from may not understand the impact that a public health option could have on the cost of his personal insurance.  And if you write him off as racist, you lose any chance of winning his support. 

You see it's important that we not get so caught up in the race arguments that we lose sight of the important goals.    Racism should always be called out!   But that is a different matter than trying to fight the racism.   Because racism is STUPID.    There's nothing you can do to change it.   Most of the time, a racist isn't some skin head freak who screams "KEEP AMERICA WHITE", instead a racist is the one who "knows" that "those people" aren't as good as "his people".    He probably even knows enough to know not to say such things aloud.   But he thinks it.  And in most cases he will think that way until the day he dies.  So why fight it?

Congressman Wilson MAY be a racist.  But it was not necessarily racist to yell at the President during the joint address to Congress.  It was rude, inappropriate and pretty stupid....but that doesn't necessarily mean it was racist.   (Now the fact that he supports flying the confederate flag over his state capital and the fact that he once belonged to an organization run by a white supremacist could indicate he's a racist.  But that's different than yelling at the President.)   For the Congress to take time to pass a bill condemning his action was probably not necessary.   It was well within their right to do so, but what did it accomplish?    It didn't change his opinions on anything.   It will help raise money for his re-election bid.   It makes him a hero to those that are as stupid as he is!  But that's about it.

Most of these Right Wing Racists really don't get it.     On CNN, Mark Williams, a major organizer for the tea party movement spent a great deal of time explaining how racism was only a fringe part of the movement.    Host Anderson Cooper then asked why Mr. Williams had written on his personal blog that President Obama was an "Indonesian Muslim Welfare Thug"?   That was merely an accurate description according to Mr. Williams, not a racist statement.  Huh? Talk about seeing the world through the eyeholes of your white hood!  How do you argue with such blind ideology?   You don't!

You can pass laws that prohibit actual racist acts.   You can outlaw desegregation.   You can ban "Jim Crow" laws.   You can prosecute for racially motivated crimes.   But you can't change how people think.  Only time and experience can do that.

And it is happening.   That's evident by the fact that Barrack Obama IS President.   That's seen in every college basketball game you watch on TV.   (When I was a child college basketball players were either black or white.   Now huge numbers proudly proclaim themselves to be "mixed")   My son who spent his childhood trying to decide if he was black or latino....now feels no need to choose.   A white step-father with a black child is not the oddity it was when I moved in with his family!    Times change and so do the attitudes of people.    What we are seeing in the Tea Party movement are the holdovers.   And there's nothing you can do about them except be thankful that today they are the minority when 50 years ago they were the average American!

It's a principal first put forth by Comedienne Ron White of the self-proclaimed "Red Neck Comedy Tour":   "YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!"

But we can fix health care.   Let's focus our efforts on that instead of the distraction of racism that we can't do anything about.