Comments on: Before Joe Wilson, there was Preston Brooks

By: Samoys

Samoys — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:17:15 +0000

lot about you

By: jdawg

jdawg — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:16:43 +0000

Assault is the threat of physical violence, battery is the act or force of violence it itself. You mean to say that the above act was battery.

By: The Economics of Disrespect - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

The Economics of Disrespect - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:41:33 +0000

[...] Representative Preston Brooks delivered to Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner (for example, see here and here). The Wilson and Brooks incidents have some superficial similarities. Both Brooks and [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:03 +0000

South Carolina has a long list of dignitaries that includes Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant contestant), Board of Education Chair, Kristin Maguire, Governor (and avid Appalachian hiker), Mark Sanford and now Joe “the hater not a debater” Wilson or the “screamer not the dreamer” as others have dubbed him. I did enjoy him cut and running through his apology, which only goes to show that he stands for nothing. He is just another good old boy where in the morning these married men preach to you that there should be prayer in our schools and in the evening they are on their cell phones setting up a date with their other women on the side, hypocrisy has been bred in. I am not surprised that he felt compel to yell like he was at some Friday night game. So long Joey, you too will be seeing the unemployment lines.

By: Robert Edward Johnson

Robert Edward Johnson — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:17:26 +0000

Cynthia, Preston Brooks taught the idiot Yankee Sumner some manners. Sumner had, the previous day, made ad hominem remarks concerning Andrew Butler (Brooks was Butler’s nephew), insulting his speech and mannerisms whcih were a result of a stroke. It would be as if some neocon idiot made fun of Tammy Duckworth’s handicaps. Sumner got what he deserver.

By: Art Bailey

Art Bailey — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:44:43 +0000

South Carolina has always had a hateful legacy when it comes to it’s politicians. Let’s see, John C. Calhoun, staunch defender of slavery and symbol of the old south, Preston Brooks, who nearly killed Charles Sumner with a cane, and who can forget Strom Thurmond, who when we wasn’t advocating segretation was copulating with his black housekeeper. Love those South Carolinians.

By: Robert McDonald

Robert McDonald — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:06:00 +0000

For the sake of accuracy: Preston Brooks was a representative from South Carolina. Brooks attacked Sumner with a cane while Sumner was seated at his Senate desk. Beaten unconscious, Charles Sumner did not die from his wounds, but never recovered entirely. He remained a radical abolitionist, though I suppose “radical” is redundant. Preston Brooks lived less than a year after the attack. Sumner died in 1874.

By: Kay

Kay — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:28:46 +0000

Joe Wilson’s outburst was indeed disrespectful. No excuse. The larger issue is not what he said – but the fact that someone would feel they needed to take that measure to open eyes. I listened carefully to the president’s speech. My feelings – I felt he was reprimanding every listener. I felt “barked” at – pointed at, yelled at and spoken to with less than respectable tone. I entered the speech with optimism and left it with disappointment and incredible concern.

Joe Wilson chose the wrong words and the wrong way to describe what millions feel. The real words are – Mr. President – you are not telling us the truth. That’s just about as nice as I can be about it as it is clearly evident to this “independent” voter that we are in deep do-do if the majority of the Obama plan passes.

Joe Wilson apologized. Move on. The Presdient did not apologize to the Cambridge police department when he called them stupid. He did not request Pelosi apologize when she called individuals at town hall meetings “un-american”.

By: beauboy

beauboy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:39:53 +0000

To:fatdrunkandstupid: I read your vile racist comments, and then read your name.That was explanation enough for me!

By: Hugh Folk

Hugh Folk — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:29:20 +0000

Why do people waste our time making uncivil and ignorant comments when it is so easy to find the facts on the Web. I come from a Southern tradition that requires you to stand up and insult your enemies to their faces, rather than hide behind an alias. The virtue of this is that if insulted, you know whom to call out for a duel or a whipping or to hide from. Fortunately, my father escaped from Edgefield, S.C., the home of Preston Smith Brooks (the remnants of his family lived across the road from my grandfather’s house.) He was a sneak, but was widely cheered by Southerners, hundreds of whom sent canes (which my father saw) for his cowardly attack on Senator Sumner. Sumner had spoken about “The Crime against Kansas” in which he criticized Democrats, including Senators Butler and Douglas. He was seated at his little desk in the Senate chamber, and Brooks beat him insensible with a wooden cane. I think the appropriate criminal charge would be attempted murder, or assault with a deadly weapon. Sumner was unable to act as a Senator for three years, but Massachusetts kept him in the Senate, and he survived Brooks, and became a leading Radical during Reconstruction. Brooks survived an expulsion vote in the House, but resigned his seat and the S.C. (white, male) voters returned him to Congress. Not for nothing did he live in one of the most violent communities in the U.S.. (Edgefield was also the home of Strom Thurmond (a great hypocrit who fathered a child on a black servant girl), who, according to legend, my uncles unfortunately rescued from drowning after he jumped off of a bridge or trestle to show he was “the bravest of the brave.”)
The conflict between peope who believe in equality of all peoples and those who believe in white supremacy is age old. I would like to think that “white supremacy” is on its last legs and will soon die out. After all, physical anthropology and carbon dating holds that the oldest human bones are found in Africa, whence we all came. We are all hereditary Africans now, with many varieties and shapes to amuse and break athletic records.