This was written by Ron Snell, director of The Connection, a shelter in North Platte and posted on his page in Facebook. It's reprinted here with his permission.


It doesn't matter which side you are on regarding healthcare reform or how you think this administration is doing with its programs. This is about how we respond to one another. ---- Pat Dannatt

Don't be Crude and Destructive for My Sake

By RON SNELL

About the time I heard that Twitterers are being investigated by the Secret Service for promoting the idea of assassinating the president, I read and heard several reports about protestors' treatment of the black caucus members as they walked into the capital building to vote on healthcare reform.


A little searching turned up varying accounts of what the protestors did, with Fox News leading the way in saying it wasn't that big of a deal. Others reported that it was a very big deal.


Whatever happened, it wasn't good, and these incidents remind me that in our country there are people who are being irresponsibly stirred up to the point that someone is going to think s/he will become a national hero for taking violent action.


So I want to go on record: If, given the opportunity, you would spit on our leaders, or tell off-color jokes about them, or hurl racial epithets at them, or use vulgarity or profanity in talking to them or about them, or if you participate in such things vicariously with approval, or if you listen to those who encourage and incite this type of behavior, or if you do not speak out as appropriate against those who are doing these things, I don't consider that you really care about actually improving our country, no matter what you say.


You should know by now that I value free and diverse discussion, even when it is hard-hitting and multi-faceted. But the kind of stuff that's being reported is, to me, unacceptable and I don't want anyone to think that I will support or honor anything like that.


Protest all you want, but do it to others as you would have them do it to you when the tables are turned. Not because the tables will turn (which they will soon enough), but because it's a good reminder of the type of people we say we are committed to being.


I invite my friends to send similar messages to their friends to send to their friends to send to their friends. I do not want anyone's blood on my hands because I sat quietly by and let someone think they were making me proud when in reality they are offending me, and hopefully you.