I'm not sure why I'm surprised. I suppose I thought that, even though I recognize that racism exists, it had at the very least become so impolite to use racial slurs in public that even the most strident bigots would keep their disgusting language to themselves and their cronies.

Sadly, I was wrong. Over the weekend, Tea Party protests in front of, and inside of, the Capitol Building included yelling "N*****" at African American members of Congress and "F*****" at a gay member of Congress. One person had so much hatred inside of himself and so little respect for the institutions his fellow gang members claim to be protecting that he spit on a member of Congress. Let me just repeat that so maybe it will sink in for me that it actually happened. An American citizen, exercising his First Amendment right to protest that which he finds objectionable, spit on an elected member of one of three institutions charged with holding that right inalienable.

Incredible.

I hated my former Congressman and I'm not too fond of my current one. But never in my life has it crossed my mind that it would be okay to use violent language or to physically assault either of them because of my own personal feelings. Not only does it go against everything my parents taught me about how to treat other people, it is astonishingly disrespectful to the majority of voters in my district who put them in office. In a democratic society, I think that matters.

Clearly, there are others who think differently. My parents had a name for those kinds of people. They referred to them as sore losers. I prefer the term assholes, but then I'm not quite as polite as my parents were.