Abraham Lincoln once told a story about a backwoods wife who had a no-'count husband. One day she heard a loud ruckus in the front yard. She peeked out the window and saw her husband rolling around on the ground with a bear. Not really knowing which side to pull for, she yelled, "Go it, husband! Go it, bear!"
When our friends on the political left start fighting each other, it's sometimes hard to know who to pull for. Just let 'em duke it out--most times. (If Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper are going at it again, go it husband, go it bear!)
But then you have those times when somebody is completely right, and somebody is completely wrong. Hold on to your coffee cup, Gentle Reader, but this is one of those times when we've come not to bury Nancy Pelosi, but to praise her.
A few days after the so-called antifa folks in Berkeley tore into right-wing protesters, kicking and punching their way past sleepy cops, the minority leader of the United States House of Representatives, who lives out that way, issued the following statement. We'll print it here without editing:
"Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts. The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted. In California, as across all of our great nation, we have deep reverence for the Constitutional right to peaceful dissent and free speech. Non-violence is fundamental to that right. Let us use this sad event to reaffirm that we must never fight hate with hate, and to remember the values of peace, openness and justice that represent the best of America."
Now that's how it's done. No on-the-one-hand this but on-the-other-hand that, no trying to defend the indefensible, no ifs, ans or buts. Just a short but strong statement against thuggery. Certain others can learn from Nancy Pelosi, at least this week.
cc: The White House
Editorial on 09/07/2017