Calling Out Congressman Joe Wilson

My note to Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) after he interrupted the President's speech on Health Care Reform by shouting "You lie!"

Dear Sir:

I wish simply to state that I believe that you are a disgrace to the United States Congress. Your state in particular bears a heavy legacy for the centuries of bloodshed, oppression and slavery that it has plunged this country into. You would think that you would have the decency to treat the country's first African American President with a modicum of respect, whatever dark thoughts you may harbor in your heart. One would think, in particular, that a former aide to the notorious segregationist Strom Thurmond would be particularly careful about perpetuating Thurmond's, and South Carolina's, racist legacy. Tonight you have shown that that racist legacy flourishes still in South Carolina and among Republican Southerners, who have clearly learned nothing and forgotten nothing since at least 1964, if not 1864. Truly, sir, if there were ever a tradition of Southern gentility, it has died in you and your swinish colleagues.

Very truly yours,

Charles W. Day, Jr.