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via:blackamericaweb.com

The battle over the Democratic health care bill turned ugly over the weekend when Tea Party protesters called Georgia Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis the N-word and spit at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver near the Capitol.

The angry demonstrators also took their wrath out on Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of three openly gay members of Congress, taunting him with a gay slur. U.S. Capitol Police arrested the demonstrator who allegedly spat at Cleaver, who, like Lewis, is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) blasted the actions of the protesters as “despicable and inflammatory behavior, much of it directed at minority Members of Congress.”

“On the one hand, I am saddened that America’s debate on health care, which could have been a national conversation of substance and respect, has degenerated to the point of such anger and incivility,” Hoyer said in a written statement. “But on the other, I know that every step toward a more just America has aroused similar hate in its own time, and I know that John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, has learned to wear the worst slurs as a badge of honor.”

 

Republican leaders and Tea Party organizers on Sunday talk shows denounced the behavior of some demonstrators outside the Capitol and congressional buildings.

“I absolutely think it’s isolated,” Amy Kremer, coordinator of the Tea Party Express, told Fox News. “It’s disgraceful. And the people in this movement won’t tolerate it because that’s not what we’re about.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the behavior of some protesters “reprehensible.”

Lewis said he was coming out of his congressional office building with other lawmakers Saturday and encountered a group of protesters who shouted, “Kill the bill, kill the bill,” a reference to the health care measures that the House of Representatives later passed on Sunday.

“I said ‘I’m for the bill, I support the bill, I’m voting for the bill,” Lewis told reporters shortly after the incident occurred.

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), who was with Lewis, told the Associated Press that some in the crowd chanted the N-word at least 15 times. Lewis shrugged off the incident, but added that the encounter saddened him because it represented an erosion of civil debate in U.S. society.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis told reporters. “But, its okay. I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the ’60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

In 1965, Lewis was badly beaten by Alabama State Police as he led a march of 600 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on a day that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” He suffered a fractured skull and has head wounds that are still visible today.

Coincidentally, Saturday’s encounter occurred two weeks after Lewis led Congress members on a tour of Selma to commemorate the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

“Congressman Lewis has since remarked that what he encountered yesterday was reminiscent of what he experienced 45 years ago as a young man marching for freedom for all Americans,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Sunday.

Cleaver (D-Mo.) told McClatchy Newspapers that “it was a chorus” of protesters hurling insults at Lewis. And someone in that chorus spit at Cleaver, a United Methodist pastor and a former two-term mayor of Kansas City.

“In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff. They’re being whipped up,” Cleaver told McClatchy Newspapers. “I decided I wouldn’t be angry with any of them.”

Cleaver declined to press charges ………. against the person who allegedly spit at him.

Later, Cleaver’s office issued a statement lamenting the lack of civility among the protesters. He also thanked a U.S. Capitol Police officer “who quickly escorted the other members and him into the Capitol, and defused the tense situation with professionalism and care.”

“This is not the first time the Congressman has been called the n-word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans,” the statement said. “That being said, he is disappointed that in the 21st century, our national discourse has devolved to the point of name calling and spitting.”

The actions by protesters did little to quell the argument of Tea Party critics that mostly-white movement has a heavy racist component. But Tea Party leaders and some GOP leaders disagree.

Hoyer said the “hateful actions of some should not cast doubt on the good motives of the majority, on both sides of this argument.”

“But members of Congress and opinion leaders ought to come to terms with their responsibility for inciting the tone and actions we saw today,” Hoyer added. “A debate that began with false fears of forced euthanasia has ended in a truly ugly scene. It is incumbent on all of us to do better next time.”

Lee said Saturday’s events prove that America has some unfinished business when it comes to race.

“We cannot sweep race and racism under the rug,” Lee said. “Our nation needs and deserves a national dialogue on race.”