Considering the long history of lynching against black men in this nation, I was also offended by the use of a hangman's noose in Joel Mielke's cartoon. I sent him a note to complain.
Joel said he felt he had expressed his point of view about Capleton's shameless calling for the hanging of Gay people in a manner that was drawn in the heat of emotion. He felt now that the cartoon might have been too exaggerated. I thought that missed the point.
I would say Joel does not have a good understanding of the role of lynching in American history, probably as most Americans do not, because that (shameful) part of American history was omitted from the textbooks for many generations.
I am a (white) Gay man. My sympathy for the victims of hate crimes is deeply felt because I was the victim of anti-Gay bullying throughout my life, especially in my earliest years. I am not indifferent to the suffering of others. I sought out information about injustices that had been done to others. To say that I should be disrespected because of an unsupported assumption that I care only about myself and people exactly like me is an insult to my humanity.
The most offensive of these comments do not represent Humboldt at all, but are written by a troll to upset everyone else and polarize the community. Most of these offensive comments are being written by one person using different names. He has been posting similar graphic and hateful messages online for years. He used to post similar offensive messages about fallen American soldiers. He enjoys upsetting people. He enjoys acting as an emotional puppet-master. His greatest joy is pulling our strings. If we go away thinking this series of comments is a true reflection of a bigoted and hateful Humboldt County, he wins.
Americans have a poor memory for historical events. Otherwise I'm sure someone would have objected to the use of the hanging imagery in Joel's cartoon. After all, lynchings (usually of black men) were once a common and shameful part of America's history. If that ugly fact were taught in American schools, I doubt Joel himself would have included the noose in the picture he drew. But as others have said, no one is calling for Capleton to be hanged. It's just the other way around. He has called for LGBT people to be hanged, burned, in short, murdered. But that, according to MielkeToast, was long ago and far away, so we should ignore it. We are calling for all people of good will to stand with us against murder music of the type Capleton used to establish his credentials in the music world. Refuse to patronize musicians who profit from murder music. If you discover other performers will be coming here to perform murder music, blow the whistle on them. As Edmund Burke wrote long ago and far away, all that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Many of the speeches made at the Labor Temple can now be seen at YouTube using the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518db2m4pF8 or by searching for AFL-CIO Humboldt and We Are One.
Nicely done, Bob. You really caught the spirit of the event.
Say Brooks, that was wonderfully stated. May I quote you?
Re: “Traffic Calming”
Great commentary on Traffic Calming, Joel. That's "traffic calming" - not "Traffic Claiming" as the shaded online headline claims. :)