Russell Wiseman is the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, a town of just under 10,000 people in the south western corner of the state. According to the town's website, Arlington is "a town rich in history and heritage in the midst of vibrant growth", the population having nearly tripled since the 2000 U.S. Census. Wiseman was elected to his post in 2003, re-elected in 2007, all this after spending a term as an Alderman.
Wiseman recently sat down to watch a holiday screening of the classic yuletide cartoon "A Charlie Brown Christmas", only to find that it had been pre-empted by President Obama's address to the nation on the Afghanistan troop surge.
Wiseman didn't appreciate this.
The mayor would go on to post several inflammatory status messages on his Facebook page, assailing Obama as (sigh) a Muslim, telling his supporters to move out of America and intimating that anyone who isn't a property owner shouldn't be allowed to vote.
As a microcosm of the neo-Fascist right wing movement, Wiseman simply isn't impressive. His rant is full of the same tired and misinformed rhetoric. He apparently isn't a big fan of the First (as it doesn't matter if Obama or his supporters are Muslim or not) or Fifteenth Amendments (as, you know, before that only white, land-owning Christian males had been afforded the right to vote).
However, these messages clearly show Wiseman's intentions in his governance. Thusly, the Town of Arlington has distanced itself from Wiseman's comments. My query to the people of Arlington is if they support the culture of fear that Wiseman has bought wholesale from the neo-Fascist right wing. The time has come to stand up to these people and insist that even if they don't respect the people in office, they respect the document that holds this nation together. To quote Toni Cade Bambara, "The natural response to oppression, ignorance, evil and mystification is wide-awake resistance."
UPDATE: The Memphis Flyer chimes in.
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