Many families have a wild and nutty relative, a person
that at parties will plant a lampshade on his head, tell inappropriate jokes in
front of children, guests and women, and generally engages in embarrassing behavior.
We – the five million members of the National Rifle
Association – have a crazy uncle, too.
Worse, we facilitate Uncle Ted Nugent’s crash rudeness
and all-too frequent deplorable acts that - while they may prick the thin skins
of the Anti-Second Amendment Lobby - they also do nothing to enhance our
organization’s image before a much less tolerant public. A public, by the way,
we’re going to need this election cycle to help defeat the likes of Bernie Sanders
and Hillary Clinton.
Nugent’s latest episode should be that last straw; an act
so lacking in dignity, self-control and just plain meanness that as an
organization we must relegate Uncle Ted to the basement.
His latest over-the-top – no, hatred - rant involves a posting
that Nugent recently wrote (February 8th) on his Facebook account.
This diatribe included photographs of a dozen leading members of what I prefer
to call the Anti-Second Amendment Lobby.
The names are familiar to each of the NRA’s five million
members. Among those whom Nugent singled out were California’s retiring Senator
Dianne Feinstein, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and the Anti-Second Amendment
Lobby’s sugar daddy and former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.
Of course Nugent had every right and reason to note that
this group of 12 men and women hold in contempt the Second Amendment along with
the NRA and its membership roster, which features several members of my family;
my wife and me included.
However, Nugent went far beyond simply showing the 12 faces
and correctly identifying them as being opponents of a treasured Constitutional
right. He included electronically pasting the image of an Israeli flag across each
of the faces of his 12 chosen Anti-Second Amendment Lobby activists.
Adding another disgusting anti-Semitic viewpoint, Nugent
tossed more volatile words on his hate-filled fire. He tattooed to the
photograph of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg this written notation: “(He)
gave Russian Jews millions of your tax dollars.”
Certainly I hold little regard for Bloomberg, a billionaire
with a trillion-dollar-size ego. But Nugent’s screed that Bloomberg is an “Israeli
agent” that helps fund that Middle East state goes well beyond simply being an embarrassment.
It is hateful. It is uncalled for. It is unnecessary.
And it is politically counterproductive to protecting the
Second Amendment; a task now made more challenging because we the members of
the NRA are letting our crazy uncle get away with his hate speech.
News accounts do note that my wife and I are not alone in
the pro-Second Amendment camp in denouncing Nugent’s horrid display of
anti-Semitism.
Not that it has done any good.
When the founder of “Jews for the Preservation of
Firearms Ownership,” Aaron Zelman, denounced Nugent’s unspeakable harangue,
Uncle Ted fired back at the person he once said was “my American BloodBrother” with
“How tragic that the self inflicted scourge of political correctness can blind
so many otherwise intelligent people!”
In other words, Nugent simply cannot grasp the damage and
danger his pen and mouth pose to advancing the pro-Second Amendment agenda of
the NRA membership.
And don’t be fooled. The opponents of the Second
Amendment have wasted no time in capitalizing on what Nugent refuses to accept:
That words do hurt a good cause.
No, it is time long past that the NRA’s membership insist
that Uncle Ted be directed back to the cellar, the door closed and there for
him to be forgotten as one of the Anti-Second Amendment Lobby’s best weapons.
Take note as well that if the NRA refuses to take action
against Nugent, well, the organization will have seen the last $50 check from
me for the organization’s up-coming political campaign.
Even more, Bev and I will simply no longer renew our respective
memberships once they become due.
We can tolerate an embarrassing, lampshade-wearing uncle.
What we will not do is facilitate a venom-filled one that spews the kind of
hateful bile spewed by the likes of Ted Nugent.
Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.
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