The Viper in the Armoire

[Note: an armoire is, according to Webster's Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: ar·moire

Pronunciation: \ärm-ˈwär, Southern also ˈär-mər\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle French, from Old French armaire, from Latin armarium, from arma

Date: 1571

: a usually tall cupboard or wardrobe ]

Having had nothing meaningful to say, I have,  as admonished by my grandmother, said nothing. But new information has changed that.

This very American story of hate and its effects in modern day Indiana started out innocently. A source e-mailed me a copy of a letter that had been mailed to a Kiwanis chapter setting up a charitable event by Kiwanis International’s agent, Dennis K. “Denny” Flahault of Bloomington, Indiana; a Vice President of the Hylant Group, the 25th largest insurance company in the USA.

I wrote a story on this blog on 09-09-09 ["Health Ins. VP sends Obama Hate-mail on Company Account"], and then, absent any further meaningful leads, moved on. Then, on September 24th, Denny Hylant’s company office in Bloomington won the Chamber of Commerce’s “Business of the Year” award, and the Flahault email came to light in a Friday, September 25 story in the Bloomington Herald-Times “Exec’s e-mail on Obama termed ‘very disturbing’.“(See HERE for full text).

Within a very short span, the company spokesman explained that it was all regrettable, that Kiwanis had accepted Flahault’s apology and had violated the company’s email policy.

Within 24 hours, Flahault had turned in his resignation, which translated to DailyKos as “Racist Email Costs Bloomington IN Exec His Job.” Aside from the internal evidence that the Kos poster hadn’t actually READ the original newspaper story, the dialogue that we NEED to be having came up in the posting — which I’ll get to in a moment.

Because there has been another development in the story, which is this: On Monday,  October 5, the Kiwanis CEO, Rob Parker, handed in his resignation. The resignation letter gives no indication as to the reason for his sudden departure.

from the Kiwanis web page

Kiwanis International CEO, Rob Parker, Steps Down

by Bob Hillhouse

October 4, 2009

Dear Kiwanis Family:

This letter is written to let you know of my plans to step down as CEO of Kiwanis International effective October 16, 2009.

Those of you who know me well will not be surprised that I am totally excited about what the future might bring for Stephanie and our family. This change will allow me to accelerate my graduate studies, while continuing to write and speak on the value and importance of leadership. My time at Kiwanis has helped fuel my passion for a more global approach to leadership, and I look forward to the public speaking opportunities that lie ahead both in the United States and internationally.

Over the past three years, I have been blessed to work with some amazing volunteers and staff members. Your passion and love for others has inspired me so significantly that I will certainly smile every time I think of you. During this time together we have made progress in a number of areas, but there is still much work left to be done.

Thanks to each of you for your friendship, your leadership and your commitment to children.

Thanks for leading,

Rob [Parker]

He had taken the CEO/Executive Director position in 2006:

INDIANAPOLIS—August 1, 2006—Kiwanis International … announced today the appointment of Rob Parker as the organization’s new CEO/Executive Director.

… Parker also will be responsible for maintaining a strong financial foundation for the organization and leading the integration of the strategic plan[...]

Parker brings nearly 25 years of nonprofit experience to Kiwanis International. Most recently, he served as president for the Atlanta-based IMPACT Group, which provides executive coaching and organizational development services to both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Parker was also previously a key member of the senior management team for the Boys & Girls Club of America, where he helped raise millions in private-sector support for the organization….

It would be disingenuous to report that Mr. Parker’s resignation had its roots in the same controversy as Mr. Flahault’s resignation had. But it would be remiss of me not to report that I have been told this, third-hand.

Were I doing standard reportorial due diligence, I would track down the parties involved and either confirm or deny.

But that would be to miss the forest for the trees.

The actual situation is this: Denny Flahault, a graduate of the segregated South Carolina university, The Citadel, emailed a series of grotesque cartoons that concluded with a caricature of President Obama urinating on the USA with communist and Muslim symbols surrounding him. The header read “you’ll love these.”

from the Kiwanis email

When the scandal broke, Kiwanis and Hylant attempted to keep the story under wraps. Then, when it appeared that it was creating quite a stir, and the Mayor of Bloomington stopped doing business with Hylant, a resignation rapidly appeared, and the story almost remained behind the firewall of the HeraldTimesOnline, restricted to subscribers in the small city opf 140,000, home to  Indiana University.

An insurance executive in his early sixties is out of a job in a very tough economy, and everything has neatly vanished.

And now, perhaps, the CEO of Kiwanis International, as well.

The forest that we are missing here is that what Denny Flahault inadvertently sent out to the wrong Kiwanians wasn’t anything much different than millions of other emails between friends and family members, all ginned up by a seemingly professional hate-mill or mills, beating a steady drum beat of hate: hatred of Muslims, hatred of Arabs, hatred of (let’s be honest) Mexicans and Spanish-speaking Americans, hatred of “liberals” — a portmanteau word that basically means anything you disagree with — and, yes, hatred of Blacks, and most especially the hatred of the notion that a Black man might occupy the White House.

This is a toxic brew of deadly vintage.

Look: at least one man lost his job and his high station in life because of this brew. We should feel compassion for his station, and not, as some of the more Neanderthal of the Daily Kos commenters gleefully celebrated, any rhetorical pissing on his grave.

And, if that is true of Rob Parker of Kiwanis, then we ought feel compassion for him too. And for all the victims of this kind of mindless, inchoate hatred. The hatred that exists as the sole “proof” of the superiority of some flaccid ego, or some fictional “group.”

We do this artificially, reflexively. Consider the “hatred” that we promote between, say, “ARCH RIVAL” football or basketball teams. Between cities and between states. Between nations.

It is a mechanism that spurs us to excel, that stokes the fires of competition in its best aspect, but in its worst, it has created the toxic brew that now confronts us: business abandoned for outright greed, theft and corruption; principles abandoned for the crack cocaine of mindless unreasoning hatred, as Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin have so ignobly portrayed; a nation on the verge of economic collapse, in deep debt to those who have no intrinsic interest in our good fortunes or good will; a nation at war with whom, we know not, in two places most of us had never heard or known much about, seemingly trapped in the “tar baby” of the Middle East, as surely as B’rer Rabbit was trapped by the ruse of B’rer Wolf.

But what happened here could have happened in your neighborhood; or even in your home. The true horror of this mess is that it is so bucolic, so mundane. The endless viral Jeezuz emails and “lucky” chain mails and the specific toxic sludge that Denny Flahault was mailing out has become background noise to us.

The nearly 24 hours a day of endless shrieking hatred of “liberals” on the “public” airwaves has become so ubiquitous that we never stop to ask: “How can you put up with this constant drumbeat of hate?”

And, therefore, we never ask what we can do to quell or moderate it, nor why we should be expected to patronize businesses that pay to put it on the air.

If we actually did that, there is not a business or service organization in America that would knowingly alienate roughly half of its potential customers by insulting their beliefs.

But we do not. We allow our “friends” and “family” to send us these endless chain mails of hate, and we don’t say anything.

Or, if we do, they will no longer speak to us.

What kind of message of “virtue” can possibly be sent that drives a wedge between families and friends, and creates false hatreds the way that this does?

Abraham Lincoln observed that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

And Benjamin Franklin put it more succinctly in the famous “Join or Die” cartoon.

Our houses ARE divided and we have allowed the serpent to creep up from the basement, sending and resending vicious, untrue, hateful and stealth emails like the ones that cost Denny Flahault his job.

I would be inhuman if that last fact did not trouble me deeply. I can understand him asking “WHAT?” that he sends and receives such emails all the time. Why has HE been singled out?

former Hylant VP Denny Flahault

I can’t answer that. But I can tell you about the kinds of emails that I and my friends and their friends receive on a regular basis. They’re emails like the one in question. There’s almost never an “author” but they’re someone like “a minister’s wife” as I chronicled last month in “Not All Mad Dogs Get Licensed.” Or, when they DO have an author, ofttimes the supposed writer doesn’t know anything about the letter he’s allegedly written.

But, you know, none of this is important. Why? Well, because that’s the standard reply, and there it sits. “They said bad things about Bush.”

I commend to your attention one blogger, Scott Tibbs and his cleverly named blog, ConservaTibbs dot com. Quote:

But here’s the problem. Like it or not, these kinds of emails circulate around the Internet all the time. Are we to expect that the city of Bloomington is going to cut ties with any vendor where an executive sent a questionable or offensive e-mail joke? There have been many offensive images created and distributed mocking and attacking George W. Bush over the last decade. In fact, Monroe County Democratic Party Headquarters featured an image of George W. Bush with his pants on fire during the 2004 election. That image is at the bottom of this post.

Yes. It is the dreaded “False Equivalency” that seems to keep so many simpletons befuddled. It was bad when you did it, so therefore it’s good when WE do it. In this case NOT bad.

You see?

And yet blogger Scott Tibbs is a sacred patriotic warrior on a noble quest:

Monday, October 12, 2009

Posted by Scott Tibbs at 5:00 AM
The Hylant e-mail: much ado about nothing.

A couple weeks ago, a “scandal” broke after it was discovered that an executive of Hylant Group of Bloomington had sent an email containing some offensive images of President Barack Obama, comparing him to Adolf Hitler and depicting him urinating on a map of the United States. That same weekend, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan declared that the city of Bloomington would no longer be using Hylant as a vendor.

Now, in many ways, Scott Tibbs is generically in Republican-speak. And I wondered why, so I looked. Looking past the quote at the bottom of the page, I had a look at his blogger profile. It is profoundly conflicted:

Politically, I am a philosophical libertarian who identifies with the Republican Party. I believe the government that governs least governs best, that taxes are too high and must be lowered, that the rights of the unborn should be protected by criminalizing abortion, and that unless someone’s actions cause harm to someone else, government should generally allow people to do as they please.

I am a Reformed and Evangelical Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He was born of a virgin, died on the cross, rose the third day, sits at the right hand of God and will return. Only through the substitutionary atonement of Christ’s blood can we be saved; there is no other way to heaven. Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. However, works are a sign of true faith.

Let me explain WHY those two concepts are profoundly in conflict. First, Libertarianism and the Libertarian philosophy derive in present-day from Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein, both atheists (Heinlein less reliably so) and both science fiction writers (Rand less reliably so). The fundamental tenets of Libertarianism are essentially Social Darwinism, with the fittest surviving to trample the less fit, and the meek being recycled into the earth.

It is a philosophy utterly at odds with being a Reformed and Evangelical Christian. How do you reconcile “Go out and spread the gospel to all the world” with  “unless someone’s actions cause harm to someone else, government should generally allow people to do as they please.”

Ironically, the only place that Christianity and Libertarianism share a common value is with so-called, ‘pro-life libertarianism.’

Christian Sunday tells you “whatsoever you do unto the least of these, my brethren, ye do it unto me.”

Libertarian Monday through Saturday tells you to kick the unworthy masses out of your way, you’re a hard-charging John Galt Superman and the weak and diseased are only getting in your way — that great Free Market invisible hand that makes millionaires of mailroom clerks and slick commodities traders.

You might say that Christianity is Jesus on the Cross, and Libertarianism is the soldiers who pulled executioner duty playing dice for his belongings. Tough to walk both paths, no matter how physically proximate they might seem.

And that’s the fundamental contradiction we see in the arguments as well:

Somehow it’s the same thing, calling Bush Hitler as calling Obama Hitler, because Bush started two unlawful wars (Afghanistan, to be fair, was “quasi” legal), lied about weapons of mass destruction, shoved through a patriot act, illegally rendered prisoners to foreign and secret prisons, created Guantanimo, evidently ordered the abuses at Abu Gharib, illegally wiretapped millions of Americans, literally attacked and ignored habeas corpus, first entered in common law at the signing of the Magna Carta in the thirteenth century …

Openly and brazenly manipulated the news cycles, rarely appeared before audiences that were either hand-picked and screened beforehand, or else were literally under threat of insubordination if they did NOT applaud the C in C …

And so on and so forth. But nobody ever did that in Bush’s first year in office.

That’s equivalent to Obama … proposing health care reform?

the “equivalent” image?

Just as the blogger comments that Bush with his pants on fire (his “damning” photo of the Democrats) is EQUIVALENT to the Obama pissing on America cartoon, which even Tibbs admits is over the line:

Some of the images, such as Obama urinating on the United States, were over the top.

Really? The Black Communist/Muslim (i.e. “terrorist”) pisses on Missouri and that’s the same as “liar liar pants on fire”?

What kindergarten did you attend, White Dude? Because nobody says anything about “liar liar pants on fire” but the pissing on America thing doesn’t pass muster in ANY kindergarten in America that I’m familiar with.

That’s the old Charlie Manson is a criminal because he broke the law. Your Grandma is a criminal because she broke the law. Therefore your Grandma is equal to Charlie Manson.

Uh, yeah, but the crimes weren’t exactly the same: Granny got to talking with Jesus in the yarn store and forgot the time and got a parking ticket.

But not to a Republican that’s not. Even if it is, which it isn’t.

It’s as crazy a supposition and argument as the notion that two wrongs somehow make a right: Since Bush was characterized as Hitler, it’s OK that Obama is characterized as Hitler. (Funny, I don’t recall Bush being characterized as a Muslim or a Communist.) But one false equivalence in the hand, to be sure, is worth a multitude on the Bush.

But the real danger here lies in our Christian/Libertarian commentator’s justification by popular appeal:

But here’s the problem. Like it or not, these kinds of emails circulate around the Internet all the time.

You see? It is not a problem to him, the incivility in public discourse isn’t a dangerous warning symptom. No, it’s a JUSTIFICATION.

And it’s a tautological one, at that. This is the most dangerous justification possible, because it justifies ANYTHING: “Since we killed so many Hutus with machetes, it must be OK.”

“Like it or not.” That’s the justifying phrase. OK:

• Whether you like it or not, daddies have sex with their daughters.
• Whether you like it or not, people are tortured to death for their beliefs.
• Whether you like it or not, men get raped in prisons.

All are true, but none are justifications for monstrous actions. I maintain that these unending emails are in the same realm of monstrous behavior, but NOT equivalent to my examples. At least not equivalent so far and so far as we know. There is a dark harvest coming from them.

Here is a real equivalence: Both Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives act like words don’t really matter.

Actually, politics and laws consist of ONLY words.

Words matter a great deal. Words matter more than almost anything and we do ourselves a grave disservice by by pretending that they don’t.

But you might ask why I chose Scott Tibbs as poster-boy.

click for full size original

We are faced with a “Libertarian” and “Christian” philosophy that is fundamentally self-contradictory, which is why, perhaps, only an unending stream of rationalizations can hold it together.

This is the state of the current Republican Party: that fundamental contradiction between “Sunday” principles and “Monday through Saturday” repudiation of those very principles. The fracture lines become more evident with each successive foray into the country of hate.

You see, a White Reformed and  Evangelical Christian Libertarian Conservative can explain that this whole silly “racism” kerfuffle is completely meaningless.

And yet one man is out of a job, and another may well be.

And, if true, rightly so, which ought to tell us just how poisonous the viper in the armoire really is. And let us devoutly pray that it does not become the adder in the armory.

But that is the subject of another hateful email, circulated friend to friend, family member to family member (received by my wife):

From: GENERIC FRIEND
To: GENERIC FRIEND (a mailing list, in other words)
Sent: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 1:59 pm
Subject: Guns must be listed on 2010 tax return

More good news from our beloved administration……..
Now ‘all Guns’ must be listed on your next (2010) tax return!

Check it out at Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/blairholt.asp

As if we didn’t have enough to get upset about! I am not sure why the people of American have decided to lay down and rollover with all this “change” going on! He is trying to drive us into a socialistic nation and we are just letting him! It is time to start making calls and writing letters to whom ever you can that might be able to have some impact on this obamanation of our rights as free citizens to own and carry arms.

If you have a gun, I hope it isn’t registered!

Senate Bill SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2009 1040 federal tax form all guns that you have or own. It will require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun.

This bill was introduced on Feb… 24, 2009, by the Obama staff.  BUT . .  this bill will only become public knowledge 30 days after the new law becomes effective !   This is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986.  This means that the Finance Committee has passed this without the Senate voting on it at all. Trust Obama ? ….. you must be kidding !

The full text of the IRS amendment is on the U.S. Senate homepage,U.S. Senate  You know who to call; I strongly suggest you do. Please send a copy of this e-mail to every gun owner you know.

Text of H.R.45 as Introduced in House: Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 – U.S. Open Congress Obama’s Congress is now starting on the firearms confiscation bill. If it passes, gun owners will become criminals if you don’t fully comply.

It has begun . . .  Whatever Obama’s secret Master Plan is….this is just the ‘tip of the iceberg!’

Very Important for you to be aware of another  new bill HR 45 introduced into the House. This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009..|

Even gun shop owners didn’t know about this because the government is trying to fly it under the radar as a ‘minor’ IRS revision, and, as usual, the ‘political’ lawmakers did not read this bill before signing and approving it !

To find out about this – go to any government website and type in HR 45 or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009. You will get all the information.

Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm – any rifle with a clip or ANY pistol unless:

-It is registered -You are fingerprinted -You supply a current Driver’s License -You supply your Social Security # -You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of their choosing -Each update – change of ownership through private or public sale must be reported and costs $25 – Failure to do so you automatically lose the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail. -There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any child under 18. -They would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable for up to 5 yrs. in prison.

If you think this is a joke – go to the website and take your pick of many opt- ions to read this. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. Pass the word along. Any hunters in your family pass this along.|

This is just a “termite” approach to complete confiscation of guns and disarming of our society to the point we have no defense – chip away a little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone realizes it.

This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not..

Search Results – THOMAS (Library of Congress) <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45& gt;  <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45> <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45> :

H.R.45: Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 – U.S. Congress – OpenCongress <http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/show>

H.R. 45: Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 (GovTrack.us) <http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-45>

Please.. copy and send this out to EVERYONE in the USA , whether you support the Right to Bear Arms or are for gun control. We all should have the right to choose.

OK. If you go to snopes, yes, it’s true. They just forgot to add something REALLY REALLY important:

It dies in committee annually. It is a bill that a legislator promised to a dying political mentor. It has a snowball’s chance in hell of actually passing.

Trust me. If it was any kind of big deal, the NRA would be going beserk.

They’re not.

The whole emotional appeal, the science fictional projections is all just delusional fantasy. The political equivalent of delirium tremens.

But there is not time to keep up with all the disinformation. All the hate. The kind of vile crap that … gets you a summons to submit your resignation.

Don’t tell me that it doesn’t matter. And don’t tell me that it’s OK. It’s not.

At least one family is facing a much colder winter because of the toxic solution fulminating through the veins of our national body politic. But if we don’t understand what’s happening and what happened, then Denny Flahault’s pain will simply be a kind of social sadism: pain inflicted to no purpose, for no reason.

But now it’s all been neatly swept under the rug, and the only person in this whole sordid mess who actually took a principled stance, Mayor Mark Kruzan of Bloomington, is left to be pilloried by the likes of Mister Tibbs.

Because principles don’t matter, I guess. Why he’s just getting the vapors about this toxic hate-speech, according to the redoubtable Mr. Tibbs. Nothing to see here, move along, move along.

former Southern Democrat Zell Miller at Justice Sunday II,
which was aimed at ending filibusters among other things

Until the next toxic email from granny, or that nice church lady, or your cousin in Chicago, or your Dad’s wife.

It’s a lot worse than we think it is, and something has got to be done to dial it back. Principles may not be the complete answer, but they certainly aren’t to be sneered at in the interim.

I just keep wondering what the hell Mr. Tibbs means by that quote at the bottom of his blog:

“A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law,
must remain unsettled forever.” – Jefferson Davis

Oh. And a Happy Columbus Day, unless, of course, you are an American Indian, in which case, sincerest condolences.

Courage.

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