The last week leading up to the election has not been very quiet around here in Kentucky. On Monday evening, Rand Paul and Jack Conway, candidates for U.S. Senate, were scheduled to debate in Lexington with KET. We weren’t sure if Paul was even going to debate Conway until Friday afternoon because of a recent ad Conway ran regarding the “AquaBuddha” event that allegedly occurred nearly 30 years ago while Paul was in college.
So, the debate was on and everything was good to go. Until a moveon.org activist decided to try to embarrass Paul with a fake award and have her picture taken with him. Below are two videos. The top video shows what happened prior to the assault and you will see where she approaches the SUV that Paul is riding in and is pushed away by a man in a suit. The second video shows what happens next.
Mike Pezzano, a man I have personally had a run-in with, is shown pushing the woman down to the ground and holding her arm behind her where she is completely defenseless while Tim Profitt, a (former) Rand Paul County Coordinator steps/stomps on the woman’s neck. Tim has since been charged and there are possible charges against others.
I am a TEA Party activist. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many people from within the TEA Party organization that I have become friends with and more than likely would have never met them had it not been for this movement. However, I absolutely DO NOT CONDONE any violent behavior REGARDLESS of the organization that someone happens to belong to. Thank God for our First Amendment or else none of us would be allowed to speak our mind or protest against our dislikes. There is no excuse for either of these two men to treat this woman in such a manner. Police officers were at this event and I believe that they were very capable of handling a situation if they felt that Rand Paul or anyone else were in any real, serious danger of being harmed.
I was not at this event but have read blogs and commentary from people who were there and based on my own personal experience with *some* Rand Paul supporters, the only thing I am surprised about is that this did not happen sooner. Prior to the May Primary, there were verbal attacks, physical threats, and downright hateful comments made against anyone who did not show support towards Rand Paul. Rather than having a civil discussion and trying to have an open mind as to why someone felt the way they did, we were called names and threatened. It almost was as if we were arguing with people from the other side, even though we were on the same side. These were people that we had joined together with during TEA Party events.
My thoughts and prayers are with this woman. Do I support her agenda of moveon.org and other liberal greenie associations??? Ummm….NO!!! I don’t. But that certainly doesn’t mean that she deserved to be thrown to the ground by a grown man and then further attacked by another grown man. I hope this is a lesson to ALL supporters of candidates. Let the police officers who have been trained to handle these types of incidents……handle these types of incidents. Wave your signs, wear your t-shirts and hats, clap your hands but don’t attack someone. Not only will you be charged with assault, you will likely hurt the candidate in which you support. And for Pete’s sake guys, don’t assault women or anyone for that matter!!!
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Thank you.
We ALL need to tone it down a knotch. Violence against any political speech regardless of how much you/I disagree with it is NOT acceptable. I am a progressive (generally) and I think there are many things that some of the Tea Party members and I actually agree on. But when we are all yelling, hitting, dehumanizing and fighting each other no one can be heard and we are distracted from the very real and deep corruption and structural problems in our system.
I often don’t like what a lot of the extreme Tea Partiers have to say. In fact, I think some of it is downright offensive to me, but I would stand along side of any of them to protect their rights to speak their minds. The political climate is unpleasant, heated and polarized, but we are all Americans and if political discourse continues and more people become aware I have confidence that we will work through our problems.
Thank you for being civil and calling out the extremists when they cross the line. I pledge to do the same when I see it on any side of the political spectrum. This is OUR country (meaning all of us), we ALL love it and want it to be better.