Wednesday night, “CNN Tonight” guests Ben Ferguson and Van Jones both agreed on some things: that in light of the Ebola case in Dallas Texas, a travel ban is not called for, that Obama wasn’t responsible for the person getting the virus, and that people are “overreacting”. Van Jones then went on to assert that Laura Ingraham was using “birther bait” when she suggested that Obama “…has an enormous amount of, I think, you know, core ties to the African continent. He’s mindful of his own family history there… Come on, it doesn’t make any sense not to have stopped these flights from coming in.”
Van Jones said. “This is stupid, this is low. The World Health Organization, nobody has been saying we should be stopping planes coming here at this point.” He spoke with such certitude. However, their main point was to “protect” the president against any criticism….. that means that anyone who is questioning his or his administration’s decisions regarding this subject, must be called “stupid”, racist, and have their motives questioned and summarily dismissed.
Similarly, a popular writer stated “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that we’ll see other cases here in the US, but, seriously: relax. We got this.” And further, “do not lose sleep about the potential for Ebola to spread across the US. It’s not going to.”
What is the message here? You are “stupid” to speak out about it (Ebola); there is no reason to know anything about it — because “they got it”, they “know about it”, it is “under control”. Finally, those who speak about it, question or worry about getting it and question why it is that we have no travel restrictions are not only stupid… such actions might be “racist”. The Washington Post even criticized the Newsweek magazine cover which features an image of a chimpanzee behind the words, “A Back Door for Ebola: Smuggled Bushmeat Could Spark a U.S. Epidemic.” What is “bushmeat? It is the cooked, dried or smoked remains of a host of wild animals, it can be a chimpanzee, gorilla or monkey. It could also be a rat, deer or fruit bat. Often, it provides protein where nutrition is scarce. It can often be contaminated. Undaunted, the author tried to compare this meat to eating venison after deer hunting.