We’ve lost count of how many comment posts have been deleted because of overtly racist language and messages since Sen. Barack Obama was declared the winner of the presidential election on Tuesday.
These comment posts have been uncomplimentary in turn to African-Americans and European-Americans. The worst ones, of course, have been associated with false email addresses.
The ones with false email addresses were banned from the site. Oh, well.
Racist comment posts are nothing new, unfortunately. What is remarkable is that we removed more in one day than we did in the past ten months combined.
We are as permissive as we feel we can be in the comment posts that we allow to remain on the site. However, Home in Henderson is not an anything-goes zone. Despite what some believe, you do not have the right to say whatever you please on this privately-owned site. Messages that are racially offensive in the opinion of the editor (who is guided by the classic “reasonable person” standard) will be deleted. If this bothers some readers, well, we’re sorry. We’d be happy to meet with you and show you how to start a blog of your very own.
In a few months or years we can compare heart attack notes. I’m a Duke Heart Center man myself. I know some others prefer UNC.
If our civilization is at a crossroads, as the election rhetoric suggests, then we must elevate the level of discourse between groups and individuals both in the flesh and on-line. Dissent in the realm of ideas is a good thing, we believe; it keeps us sharp, staves off complacency, and makes us rethink our ideas and beliefs.
Ad hominim attacks, on the other hand, breed only rancor. In the great debate that is America, victory should belong to the person with the best ideas, not the loudest voice and the sharpest tongue. Leave that to our enemies, like the ideologues of Al-Qaeda who spew the filth of hatred to rouse the rabble.
Deep down inside, America is better than that. That is why they cannot defeat us.
Just something to think about.