Seriously guys sometimes we forget. Here's a note from a reader:
My father (85 year old African-American and, in fact, a "public
intellectual" who helped coin the phrase "African-American" 40 years
ago, a phrase we now take for granted on our census forms) and his wife
(77 old European-American, the term they both hope will replace "white"
someday, and life-long civil rights activist and academic) voted this
morning in Atlanta, GA. My stepmother emailed me this morning to tell
me about their experience, early voting, getting "fragile elderly"
treatment from the poll-workers, wishing she could kick up her
septuagenarian heels after casting her vote.
I sat in my office, reading her email, and wept. Then, I went down the
hall to my colleague's office, sat down, and wept. After seven decades
of constant struggle, my father walked into that booth and knew that his
life's work was now done. My stepmother can think of every person who
secretly and not-so-secretly thought of her as some kind of race
traitor, smile and think "I told you so!"
Obama will win, I'm sure he will. But today, my parents did. I am so
deeply, deeply grateful.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Thank you for sharing that. I am tearing up myself reading it.
Oh, God, we do forget, don't we?
If we just look at our own decade, it seems impossible to understand Representative Lewis saying we might be able to "lay down the burden." It seems outlandish to even whisper "we as a people will get to the Promised Land." It seems outrageous to say "the Joshua generation."
When we look from the perspective of those two Atlanta voters, those words seem perfectly apt. The work that remains, hard as it will be, is tiny compared to what they have already done.
I think that our country will never be the same again after Obama. Some great chapter in American history will come to a close with his presidency. No, it won't be the end of racism in America. Not even close. But the uneasy relations we as Americans have had since the '60s may turn into something else, something better. This coming from a "European American".
I certainly hope Georgia goes for Obama. Every state has at least some history of racial discrimination that it can't be proud of, but Georgia is so central to the story of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, and the "New South," that it would be uniquely sweet to win there.
cool...it is hard to remember that we are witnessing history...and living it...
Know Hope...
TNC: I was moved by your reader's sentiments except for the hyphenated American stuff. Shouldn't we be aiming for a day when Americans are no longer hyphenated people? Isn't that what Dr. King was after?
Seems like if we went for European-Americans to describe white people (when many would rather not be associated with Europe but rather with Britain and hence go for a subset, just Anglo-American) or some other hyphenated moniker, seem like we'll continue to perpetutate racial and ethnic differences when we should be thinking about Americans in terms of citizens of the USA, everyone entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship.
I don't know if you agreed with your reader's views on hyphenation. Just wondering what you thought about the issue generally.
Full disclosure: I'm an Anglo-Franco-American, my wife is Italo-American and my kids are A-F-I-American. And I'm voting for Obama.
Thanks.
That was wonderful, and brought tears to my eyes, too.
22 days to Hope fulfilled.
i'm not normally one to post just to say "second," but since daz posted my precise thought, i'm going to say "second."
I wept also and please know it's happening everywhere. My white, 72 year old mom grew up in Weegee Holler in Ohio. She remembers crosses burnt in the night if a citizen was deemed "uppity". I remember being sent from the room when the evening news covered the Days of Rage. How far we have come. My family in Ohio has never known a black guy. Never voted for a black guy. They use racial epithets with alarming frequency. They are all voting for Obama, enthusiasically.
Really this is what it is all about?
I disagree. While I respect the sentiments expressed, I'm not supporting Obama because of his race.
I'm supporting him because I think he is most qualified to lead this nation.
If his winning the presidency somehow helps a group of citizens feel like they have overcome something, that is great for them. If his winning the presidency somehow shows a generation that their struggles have been for a purpose, that is also great.
But in the end it is all just gravy. I support him for what he is, not what he means to others.
Nice post, Ta-nehisi,
Interesting contrast with all the thuggery you've been writing about.
I wish we had a video.
We will all wake up the day after the election completely astounded by how every object in America has suddenly been painted overnight in a thousand shades of American.
Little things will make you cry for no reason, because as your mind wanders over this or that, it will be as if you start to feel a cool breeze coming down from the mountain top.
We won't be there yet. But everything around us will start to tell us how much closer we are. The street, the sky, the face of every stranger, will say something never heard before: this now can be our America.
Remember every slave when you wake up that day. Remember every soul tossed over the side of a ship as so much excess weight. Remember every whipped and brutalized body, every amputated life. Remember every unanswered insult and easy presumption of injustice and supremacy. Remember the torches, the dogs, the hoses, the rope, the shot from across the motel.
This election is not just a contest between Democrat and Republican. This election is not just an occasion to present a vision for the generations ahead. This election is a conversation between us and those millions who have suffered to come before us in which we covenant to honor their sacrifice with our integrity, their pain with our compassion, their careful intelligence with our pragmatism.
Like no other moment in our lives, this is our moment to be witnessed by history, to be with history, to be awed by how much history brings us to sixty million small marks on paper. In this moment, we will not be voting alone.
@SmokeyJoe
I think most of us support Obama because he is --by far-- the best candidate. But it is moving to know that this is happening knowing our history.
It is beautiful.
That's a beautiful story, TNC.
It reminds me of the phone conversation I had with my sister this past weekend. We were talking about our deceased parents and what they would be saying and thinking this election.
My mom was one of the few whites in my little corner of Western PA who was active in the civil rights struggle locally. She came to it through her strong Roman Catholic faith and a priest who lived as a symbol of Jesus on earth should stive to live. She was a fervent FDR Democrat and Kennedy worshipper.
My dad was a harder nut to crack, but he, too, was seen as rather liberal about race, especially for a Republican. His liberal bona fides? He had AA friends, one of whom actually visited our home on a regular basis (albeit always through the back door). The Nixon years finally broke him of his faith in the GOP and he ended up his life much more a social liberal than my mom ever thought of being.
As my sister and I talked about our reminiscenses of them and speculated about their reactions to this particular election, we both found ourselves with tears running down our faces, both in sadness that they didn't live to see it and with joy that this is something they both would have been ecstatic to see.
It's truly a beautiful, wonderful thing to see, isn't it? I'm humbled that I've been so fortunate to live in this moment.
I get so focused on making sure he wins -- he must win! -- the blinders go on, and I forget what this will mean. For the moment.
Thank you for the touching post.
That was chilling...in the most positive way possible. It was a shiver of realization that we are about to enter a whole new world of incredible opportunity and that a black man is going to lead us there. I'm deeply gratified that I have the opportunity to help make that new reality possible.
It's a dangerous, challenging future we're entering but no American I can think of is more qualified to blaze the path through that wilderness than Barack Obama.
Why'd you go and make me cry. I've been collecting photos from this campaign. The ones that always get me are the Elders and The Youth. I would read stories during the Primary Season about the Elders going to vote, and to a fault, they always made me tear up. I wrote awhile ago that I came to terms, that whatever my difficulties with Obama, my vote for him was for 2 people:
Mama, who grew up in Jim Crow Mississippi
My Great-Niece, all of 6 months old last week
My vote for him is for both of them.
Smokey,
The young lady's Dad was born during a time when--in Georgia--he could not vote, and could not be married to the woman he loved. The cat can now cast a vote--for a black man, and a biracial man no less--and love who he chooses. Even if you have other reasons--don't disrespect that.
It's been a long, long time coming, but I know ... a change is gonna come.
Shouldn't we be aiming for a day when Americans are no longer hyphenated people? Isn't that what Dr. King was after?
I'm not aiming for a day when none of us see ourselves as black, or white, or as possessing any other racial or ethnic identity. I'm aiming for a day when those identities are not used as weapons, a day in which they don't limit us.
I'm a New Yorker. I'm not discriminated against on the basis of that identity, nor do I discriminate against others who don't share it. But I am, nonetheless, a New Yorker, by birth and by heritage. It's a part of my identity. Why would I to aim for a day when I no longer see myself that way? And if I wouldn't, why would I aim for a day when I no longer see myself as white?
Thanks for sharing this wonderful story. My late father, an African American who was born in and lived his life in Chicago, and a man whom I never had seen shed a tear, wept on the night Harold Washington was elected mayor. A dear African American friend in her late eighties, who recently encountered a serious health scare, told me that she must have had to hang on in there to vote for Obama. Person after person whom I've talked to about the election, at some point has reflected on what an Obama presidency would have meant to a parent or a grandparent. It is indeed a humbling historical moment.
Ditto on TNC's comment to Smokey. Four years ago I became an avid Obama watcher because it was just blatantly obvious to me he would be a superb president. Few of my friends believed it was remotely possible. You can definitely put me in the "I support BO because he's by far the best candidate" category.
But you can also put me in the "Voting for him because it's about damned time this country had a A-A president." The reader's letter reminds me of why that matters so much and I'll think of his/her parents on Nov. 4.
You can vote for the best candidate without being blind to history.
"I would be the last to say that America is a perfect nation. But we, as a nation, have a kind of perfection in us, because our founding principle is universal: we are all created equal." -- Barbara Jordan, Dallas Texas, July 1995
Smokey --- If Obama were not being elected because he's the best person for the job, it would not mean half as much as it does mean. If, for instance, Clarence Thomas had been put at the top of the Republican ticket and won, it would be historic in some sense, but not particularly profound.
What's fundamentally important about this election is that it's a black man running -- not on his establishment credentials, not on his ability to be elevated by party hacks, not on his repeating the same safe and boring talking points -- but simply on the basis of his honesty, integrity, intelligence, leadership, and vision. He's what we would want any president to be. And he's winning. And racism is losing to that. And that's profound.
Barack Obama won't be elected as the first African American president. He'll be elected as the first plain old American president. All the others who came before were elected as white presidents.
I'm a 1st generation Irish-American. In 1969 my parents took me and my siblings on a 6 week trip back to Connemara in County Galway to meet their relatives who remained there and to see where they had come from. The Irish economy hadn't soared yet, and that area of Ireland was still fairly undeveloped by European standards. Few had phones, many still lacked electricity. Homes were heated by burning turf, and a lot of the roofs were still thatched.
And in every house - really, EVERY house - there was the presidential portrait JFK. Even more omnipresent than the Pope.
When Obama wins there will be people all over the world, many living in tough circumstances, who will be moved in ways a lot of Americans won't understand. No one should deny the importance of this moment. I'm a nasty, cynical bastard, but I think this is beautiful.
You need not be an African American to be deeply moved by this story. Granted, as European-American, I will never fully understand the very personal pain associated with racism and the systematic denigration of an entire people, but I do choke-up a bit when I hear stories like this. Our backgrounds may differ, but we’re all human beings, so it fills me with joy to see my brothers and sisters filled with hope.
I hope to have children soon and, should I be so fortunate and Obama Presidency will mean that my kids will always know a world where an African American is (or has been, if my plans get derailed) President. For them, it will always have been this way. I don’t think it’s possible to underestimate the impact this will have on how they view this country and all whom call it home.
This is the America I want to live in.
Throughout these Bush II years, with the Constitution under siege, I kept waiting for someone from the first generation of beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Movement to come forward. The reason being that these are the people who are still young enough to lead but old enough to know the price that was paid for their civil rights and the opportunities that slowly started to happen for black people. These are people who do not take freedom for granted.
When Obama was asked why he didn't to run for the presidency until he had more years in the senate, he said it was because of "the fierce urgency of now."
I grew up in the south in the 60's and I can easily draw the same parallel as Obama.
This is about freedom and democracy, our core ideals. We have a lot of work to do to fix the economy and healthcare and foreign policy, to be sure. But most importantly, we have to defend the Constitution.
It is so appropriate that at this time with our nation in dire need of leadership, the man we have chosen is a constitutional lawyer from that first generation of beneficiaries of the Movement.
I remember the construction of the Berlin Wall (I was nine), and I remember the bombs, truncheons, dogs and fire hoses in Selma and Montgomery.
The Wall fell — something I wasn't sure I'd ever see ... and we are now on the brink of making history with the election of an African American as President, something that once seemed unimaginable.
I am profoundly grateful to be living now and have the opportunity to witness such a profound shift in American history.
You need not be an African American to be deeply moved by this story.
I'm African American and I'm not "deeply moved" though I understand the sentiments expressed and share them to, obviously, a lesser degree.
Me, I just don't see a Black president Obama is the crowning achievement...
Also, I don't understand the disconnect when the story included the 77 year old European-American mother.
But I am, nonetheless, a New Yorker, by birth and by heritage. It's a part of my identity. Why would I to aim for a day when I no longer see myself that way?
Hyphenations seem to reinforce racial identity when the hyphenated American thing has nothing to do with racial identity but with national identity. You're a New Yorker. Makes sense to me. But New York is a real melting pot yet nobody calls themselves an Italo-New Yorker.
I just don't see how dropping the hyphenated-nation identity makes you any less white or black or yellow; an American is a citizen of the United States. We can celebrate our different heritages however we see fit. I'm just missing the benefit derive being hyphenated Americans.
After reading this post and the comments it generated, I can't help but think "please, please, please" let it happen. Please. I want to believe Obama will will, but I'm still so afraid that it won't happen.
And if - when - it happens, please, please, please Obama, live up to our hopes. I know that's a burden, and we have obligations to fulfill, as well. But please, win Obama - and lead like we think you will.
"Hyphenations seem to reinforce racial identity when the hyphenated American thing has nothing to do with racial identity but with national identity."
You're giving a lot of power to what is, at the end of the day, a punctuation mark. Personally, I don't strive for a world where there are no differences. I strive for a world where people are treated equally and have the right to identify however they please. Who am I to tell them the meaning of what they call themselves? What right do I have to tell Joe Lieberman he shouldn't call himself a Jewish American? That Mel Martinez shouldn't call himself a Cuban-American? What do I know of their lives? What do I know of their experiences? What gives me that right? Why would I even want it?
SmokeyJoe-Your first statement. That's the point. That's why this is all so important. During the Democratic convention Charlie Rose interviewed a former classmate of Obama's - a woman whose parents had fled the Shah - she teared up trying to express how she felt about the prospect that her old friend might be the next president. Not I realized because he was her old friend, but because there have always been two Americas. One that, to paraphrase Churchill, was the worst country in the world except for all the others; and one that's part unrealized dream, part unjustified myth - that shining city on a hill we're always hearing about. What choked that woman up was the same realization that catches in my throat when I stop to think about it, the realization that even our experience driven cynicism has taught us that we were living in one, it turns out we live in the other.
questioner writes: "I just don't see how dropping the hyphenated-nation identity makes you any less white or black or yellow; an American is a citizen of the United States. We can celebrate our different heritages however we see fit. I'm just missing the benefit derive being hyphenated Americans."
Maybe that's because you've never experienced it. I'm glad I grew up with a sense of "other" - a not-wholly mainstream American sensibility and experience. You may see no value in that but so it goes. Put it this way - there's a reason people still study de Tocqueville.
This reminds me of the way I always describe Dreams From My Father -- as a man fighting a losing battle against idealism. It took so much crazy optimism in 1960 for an African man and a white woman to think that their marriage could work. And it turned out that their marriage didn't work. As he tells the story, Obama tried to reject his parents' optimism. He tried hard to be a cynic, but he kept falling back into hope. For all of us who find that cynicism comes far too easily, it's a beautiful and painful experience, being seduced into hope.
Wonderful. Thanks TNC, and thanks to whoever shared the story as well.
You need not be an African American to be deeply moved by this story.
I not an African American and I am not a Democrat, but I still am deeply moved by the feelings of those who been brutalized , ignored, discarded and marginalized over the years. If seeing Obama get elected helps to sooth any of the pain that has been inflicted, God bless them.
I have the luxury of waking up in the morning and thinking of myself as simply an American because that is how I am treated and always have been. I hope that an Obama Presidency moves those who do not look like me to feel more like I do in that respect, not only in their own eyes, but by those who look like me but think differently.
I'm voting for him on the issues and temperament, and because I think he has the potential to be a truly great president. The times--both the economic mess and the dreadful Bush FP blunders--will give the next president a chance to truly set the course for our future in the coming decades; I want Obama to be that person. No tears.
But the little old people thrilled to vote, and to see a nation that can elect a black man, something many a year ago thought wasn't possible? Yeah, I get teary.
"Barack Obama won't be elected as the first African American president. He'll be elected as the first plain old American president. All the others who came before were elected as white presidents."
Really? What Americans of a different ethnicity ran prior to this do you believe would have made fine presidents?
Why should we be excited that old people are thrilled to be voting for someone simply because he looks like them? It's like Arkansans voting for Bill Clinton just because no one from Arkansas had ever been President before. What does that have to do with his qualifications or abilities? Nothing - he had no more control over where he was born than Obama or McCain had over their ethnicity. None of those things means that we should be happy we get to vote for them.
Matt -- it should be pretty obvious that all previous presidents were elected in part because they were white men. That says nothing about their individual qualities. But it does say something about how race has been a barrier in the United States.
You can't acknowledge that race has been a barrier but then argue that each previous president has been elected purely on his merits.
It is stories like these that really put where we are in perspective. On my worst days I think about the troubled past of our county. The fact that my father marched with my grand father in the deepest parts of Georgia for something better, that barely a generation separates us from some of the worst racial hatred.
I worry at times that when I bring children into this world, who will be African, Anglo, Irish, Polish, Amer-Indian, German, and Jewish, that they will know the bigotry that so brazenly walked the streets of my grandfather, father, and even mine. I've grown up knowing some people hated me for being just half that mix and I'm fearful of the possible hate they could endure. But then I read something like this that reminds me just how far we've come and I have hope that they'll grow up being unafraid of their colurful selves.
I have an eight year old daughter. She has sat with me during all three debates. And at some point, it occurred to me that she had been watching seeing a black man run for President and a woman (albeit an unqualified one) run for Vice-President.
For her, Obama's historic run (and eminent election) is no more noteworthy than the fact that the sky is blue. When I realized this, I felt not necessarily proud of my country, but I certainly felt hopeful.
And TNC:
I know you have sworn off sports metaphors are also a Cowboys fan, but don't you feel like getting a throwback Doug Williams Redskins jersey? I'm going to buy one to wear on 01.20.09.
Why is that obvious? Was Jesse Jackson not elected President solely because he was black? Was Al Sharpton rejected because people only wanted a white President?
I'm not arguing any President is elected solely on their "merits" (a word that has infinite definitions in these contexts), but to simply say that they won because they were white as the person I quoted did is foolish. Did Bush I win solely because he was white and Mr. Jackson was black? Is it possible that the quality of Mr. Jackson's ideas were substandard? How about in 2004 - is it possible Mr. Sharpton didn't get nominated for a reason other than Kerry was white and Sharpton wasn't?
Who are the other candidates from other ethnicities that were rejected because of their skin color? Is Hillary rejected by the Democrats because she was a woman? Replace "white" with "male" in the post I quoted and aren't all the Democratic primary voters sexist?
Or to turn it on his head - does a white guy from a family with no political connections and Mr. Obama's experience level get the Democratic nomination this year?
Again, it makes no sense to vote for someone for President of the United States simply because they look like you. And if it was racist, as the poster implies, for all of us whites who voted for white people before this year to do so, why is it not racist for those with the same skin color of Obama to vote for him in overwhelming numbers?
"And at some point, it occurred to me that she had been watching seeing a black man run for President and a woman (albeit an unqualified one) run for Vice-President."
Actually, if the election plays out as predicted, and given the popularity of Obama with Democrats and Palin with Republicans, the most important lesson she should take from this is that qualifications and experience are not keys to either of the offices they seek. In fact, the thinner the record, the less enemies you make and the easier it is to seem to be whoever the public wants you to be.
Matt -- you are really confusing various issues.
1. Of course Jesse Jackson's race prevented him from being president. It wasn't the only thing that did so. Race does not have to be the sole factor to be an actual barrier. Similarly, it would be ridiculous to suggest that whiteness was the only reason why e.g. Clinton won -- ridiculous because Bush I and Dole were also white. But it is not ridiculous to say that Clinton would not have won if he had not been white. That should be pretty obvious. Whiteness is a necessary condition here not a sufficient condition.
2. For whites to vote for Clinton under those conditions was obviously not itself racist. To think I am suggesting otherwise is pretty dumb. But because Clinton was elected only because he was white still means he was elected as a white president. It's got nothing to do with motivations in voting. It's got to do with actual political possibilities.
3. No-one is suggesting voting for Obama because he is black. That's the whole point of what I wrote. Read it again. We're voting for him because he's the best person. And it's profoundly important that now we can elect someone who is not white as president simply because he's the best person. Whiteness is no longer a necessary condition for being president.
Actually, if the election plays out as predicted, and given the popularity of Obama with Democrats and Palin with Republicans, the most important lesson she should take from this is that qualifications and experience are not keys to either of the offices they seek. In fact, the thinner the record, the less enemies you make and the easier it is to seem to be whoever the public wants you to be.
Bitter much?
"Actually, if the election plays out as predicted, and given the popularity of Obama with Democrats and Palin with Republicans, the most important lesson she should take..."
Wow. Presumptuous much?
Matt-
You're wrong. The most important lesson she should take is people may only be judged by the content of their character, not their color, or gender, or sexual orientation, or religion, or what-have-you.
This is precisely what I teach her. The important thing is that she is actually seeing it happen, which is a much better way to learn something.
Not really. I support whoever the President is. I would just like to have a President who is prepared for and has experience in and has offered courageous and correct policy proposals in the area where the Pres has the most unilateral control-foreign policy.
Instead for the last 16 years we've had rookies who have little in the way of a record of any kind because a record makes them harder to elect. Clinton, Bush and now Obama can claim to believe anything and speak in platitudes because neither had to cast many votes on difficult issues related to foreign policy. or economic policy for that matter.
Here's a great bit of "harmony" to add to this post - Bluegrass legend and "uber-cracker" Ralph Stanley endorses Barack in this campaign video:
http://www.beautifulhorizons.net/weblog/2008/10/bluegrass-legen.html
I wish my dad were here to see this election, but not for the reasons the majority of the commenters or the emailer stated.
My dad found every possible reason not to vote for a Democrat. He wouldn't vote for Dukakis because he was short and wouldn't be able to stand up to the commies. He wouldn't vote for Clinton because he believed all of the rumors. He died before Bush got into office.
I had hoped this moment would have happened about 20 years ago. I didn't start out an Obama supporter. Now, it's different. The way I felt 20 years ago is different now. As I stood in line to vote early in the Texas primaries, I felt it -- that pride in what was happening. I saw it in the young people at the Upward Bound program at my school this summer.
I can't remember who brought up the Hannity interpretation of MLK's speech, but I will sing in harmony with those who pointed out that its not blindness, but acceptance that MLK was talking about.
Matt writes: "And if it was racist, as the poster implies, for all of us whites who voted for white people before this year to do so, why is it not racist for those with the same skin color of Obama to vote for him in overwhelming numbers?"
Blacks voted for Clinton and Kerry and Gore in "overwhelming numbers," too. Nothing "racist" about it - they just realize that the Republicans don't give a damn about them and have been using them as scapegoats for the past 40 years. That Obama will improve somewhat on those overwhelming numbers isn't much of a surprise.
It's too bad this election is frosting your ass, Matty, but you'll just have to deal with it. Dumbya got 99% of the creationist vote and you probably didn't protest that, so just step back and enjoy democracy in action. I know I will.
In philosophy we make a logical distinction that is useful here: necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. Necessary conditions must obtain in order to get a certain result, but are not in themselves enough to get that result. Sufficient conditions are themselves enough to get that result.
So, the role of race (and arguable gender) up to this election has been:
1) Being a white male was a necessary condition for being elected Pres. But it took more than just being a white male to win (as evidenced by all the while males who have never been Pres).
2) Being anything other than a white male was a sufficient condition for not being elected Pres.
White males are advantaged by both 1) and 2), but in different ways. 2) makes the overall playing field uneven. 1) defines the playing field as a competition between a minority of people, but doesn't give any individual an advantage once they are within that field. Bill Clinton was advantaged by 2) for historical reasons that he can't be blamed for, but he still had to compete on the merits with everyone else who passed 1).
Say what you will about Obama's qualifications and why people should or should not vote for him, he's shattered both 1) and 2).
@Matt:
Name a president in the past 45 years, aside from BushI, who has had "foreign policy experience". Using your standard, there is only one: Ford.
This is only one flaw in your argument. You need to define "foreign policy experience". And while you're at it, you should define "policy".
And after you're finished with that, you should explain how those experiences and policies qualify the person you're talking about.
Unrelated to the post but if it were Sunday there would be a thread open so I gotta put it here:
Dare I say, how 'bout them Cleveland Brownies!
Comments are closed. There are about 30 threads on this board where folks can argue about the qualifications of Obama. It's classless to bring that here. This young lady is sharing the experiences of her father, a dude who lives in a state where he effectively could not have voted forty years ago. You don't have share his sentiment, but have some class and--and just this once--follow the old maxim and say nothing, if you have nothing good to say. Good God, show at least a spec of human decency.