Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Right wing eliminationist sentenced to prison for threatening Senator Patty Murray

Remember Charles Alan Wilson? The denizen of Selah who was so upset over the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that he made numerous phone calls to Senator Patty Murray's office threatening to kill her?

Well, today was Wilson's last day in court. Following his arrest in late April, he pleaded guilty to the charge of threatening a federal official, and so, as a consequence of his plea, he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour, a Reagan appointee.

Prior to adjourning, Coughenour read the following magnificent statement, penned by one of his law clerks, Colin George. He explained that he had asked his clerks to write down what they'd tell Wilson when he was sentenced. He liked George's submission so much that he decided to read it aloud in court rather than to use it as an inspiration for his own composition.
Mr. Wilson, I have no doubt in my mind that you are passionate about your country. That you respect the Constitution. And that when you made those phone calls about what you perceived to be the dangers of healthcare reform, you thought you were standing up for what you believed to be American ideals. But I want to remind you about one of the most important American ideals of all.

The presidential election of 1800 was the first time in the history of this planet that power was transferred from one political faction or party to another without bloodshed. Power had transferred between political allies peacefully before, but between enemies, the only transfers had occurred with the help of swords and guns. The American system changed all that.

The very foundation of our system of laws and government, and the promise of democracy is that political change is accomplished through reasoned debate, through persuasion, and through voting.

And we have a word for people who try to effect political change through violence and threats of violence. Just this week, a commentator on one of the major news networks said, and I quote, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." This is about as ignorant, hateful, and bigoted a statement as I can imagine. Terrorism is not a religion.

Terrorism is not an ethnicity. Terrorism is not a color. Terrorism is replacing peaceful political participation with violence.

At the same time, Mr. Wilson, ending terrorism is not a crusade. It's not a clash of civilizations. It should not be an unending war, and it should not be an excuse to limit anyone's freedom, American or not. Ending terrorism requires a commitment to the elimination of violence, coercion, and threats from political life. And when I hear people in the media who proclaim on one hand to be supporters of the "war on terror," while on the other hand stirring up the kind of violent outrage against our elected leaders that you felt, well it makes me think that we have lost our way. And it makes me think we have the wrong defendant here today.

You lost your way, Mr. Wilson. And you let the urge for violence overcome your commitment to reason. And when you did so, you did not just break the law, you betrayed the values about which you are so passionate. Mr. Wilson, I believe that you are sincerely sorry for your actions. And I doubt I will ever see you in my Court again. But as serious as our commitment to peaceful political change is, so must be the punishment for those who seek to effect change through threats and violence.
It's hard to imagine a more fitting response to Wilson's actions than those paragraphs, which weave together history and media criticism into an eloquent defense of our values and our system of government.

Colin George's words remind us that terrorism cannot be defeated with terrorism. Destructive words beget destructive acts, and destructive acts beget more destructive acts. Unfortunately, that wisdom did not guide the Bush administration and Congress' response to the September 11th attacks.

Instead of becoming stronger as a country, we became weaker, because our leaders reacted out of fear instead of courage.

Tolerance and two-way communication are important values in the progressive moral system, but we claim no monopoly on the principles of peace. To the contrary... we wish more conservatives shared our vales, because then we'd have more in common. It's difficult to empathize with a right wing eliminationist, let alone reason with such a person. They make it impossible. You're either with them or you're against them. It's absolute.

It's challenging to fight intolerance without being intolerant. This is the paradox the right wing finds themselves in. They say they're committed to the defeat of America's enemies. For them, any means justifies that end. Eliminationists see progressives as being in the way, so they seek our destruction. They don't seem to realize that holding such beliefs means that they have more in common with the likes of al-Qaeda than their fellow Americans.

We can't fall into the same trap.

As progressives, we must continue to battle hate speech and violence without giving up on the idea of free speech and freedom. That's why we're so glad to see that justice has been served in the case of Charles Alan Wilson.

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