Just in case my prose was a bit too obtuse in my previous entry, I feel I should point out a few key facts:
1. I never said I hold all of Islam responsible for 9/11. I do, however, find the association between well-funded Islamic organizations and international terrorism to be disturbing and something that should be investigated further.
2. The government will not, CAN NOT, prevent the construction of the mosque. Once the zoning board ruled in their favor, the mosque has every legal standing. The point, of course, is not CAN they build a mosque there, it’s SHOULD they.
3. In my opinion the construction of a mosque in that location is inciting ill will, even violence, towards that specific house of worship as well as against other Muslim Americans. To build an Islamic cultural center in that location smacks of public opinion tone deafness. The President, by voicing his support, again shows how out of touch he is with the majority of Americans.
4. Read my post, below, again. I was, I am, protesting the construction of the mosque and the fact that anyone who speaks out, in the negative, about this issue is attacked. To call me racist, bigoted and un-American is patently unfair. I’m doing a very American thing- using words and ideas to protest.
Yesterday an MSNBC reporter compared those who disagree with the mosque construction location to the 9/11 hijackers. When I read Norah O’Donnell’s comments I said some very unprintable things. Then I read that Speaker Pelosi believes that those protesting the mosque are doing so for political aims and the “funding of those people” should be investigated.
Those people, Madam Speaker, include Harry Reid: the Majority Leader of the Senate and one of your party cohorts. Those people include as many as 70% of the American public. By insinuating that there must be some vast conspiracy going on that would allow Americans to vocalize their opposition to such an emotional issue, you show your own tone-deafness. Americans are blessed with good schools, cheap forms of communication and the 1st Amendment. That 1st Amendment that protects the right of crass individuals to build an inflammatory symbol at the location of a national tragedy also allows Americans to protest that self-same construction. We should be able to do so without threat of investigation and without being compared to mass murders.
We are the people. We are making our voices heard. You can stomp your foot and refuse to listen, but keep in mind what happens to recalcitrant toddlers who employ such actions: they get sent to their rooms for a time-out. We the people may very well send you home.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Never Forgetting, Not Yet Forgiving
I’ve been told, by the President of the United States, by the Mayor of New York, by the Governor of New Jersey, that protesting the erection of a mosque less than half a block from “Ground Zero” is not the American way. That, as Americans, we live the beliefs of religious freedom, cultural tolerance, and forgiveness. That opposing this center of religious worship is racist, bigoted, and jingoistic.
My religion teaches me to turn the other cheek, to forgive those who have sinned against me as they forgive me when I sin against them. My God is a loving God, his son and prophets espouse love for all mankind, even the most flawed among us. As a lover of this God, as a lover of the Constitution that shapes our government and ensures our freedoms, freedoms I believe to have been handed down quite literally from our Creator, I should forgive the Islamic radicals who visited death and destruction upon my country- upon me.
I’ve also been told that time heals all wounds. I’ve been told I’m educated enough to differentiate between radicals sects and peaceful brethren of the Book.
But, you know, I cannot recall anyone lecturing the survivors of the Bataan Death March about forgiveness and American support of multi-culturism. I don’t recall a Shinto temple being erected anywhere near the watery grave of the Arizona. I don’t recall liberating forces looking into the emaciated faces of Nazi death camp survivors and telling them to suck it up and cease their whining.
There are some wounds that take generations to heal- lifetimes, in fact. Those who lived through the horror have to fade from the Earth before the trauma of the event can be allowed to weaken. Before the grass can grow green over the scarred land and the hatred can dim in men’s eyes, there has to be a generational disconnect.
We are imperfect beings, humans. We do not forgive easily. We struggle with fear, irrational hatred, and bitter memories. We kneel in prayer, before many gods, seeking the Grace to be better, holier, more forgiving.
So, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Governor, you may try to lecture me on the American way and Christian forgiveness, but if the Lord God Almighty struggles daily to teach me that lesson, just how successful are you going to be?
When you have run into a shattered, burning, building to save complete strangers, or wrestled with knife wielding madmen in a vow to live, and die, as you chose, then you may lecture us on the American Way. When you have served one single day in a hostile foreign land, shot at, maimed emotionally and physically in dogged pursuit of the human abominations behind terrorism, then you may remind us of the duties of a citizen.
When you have stood and watched your co-workers and the people you passed in the hallways burn to death in a man-made hell on Earth, you can lecture us on forgiveness. For shame Mayor Bloomberg, for you personally. Can you not recall watching bodies plummet from the skies? Many may have forgotten that particular horror in a sea of cataclysmic images- the American press is too “sensitive” to publish those pictures any more. But you, a citizen, a LEADER, of that scarred city should never, ever, forget.
When you have made a call to your mother telling her: “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know where they want us to go. I have to go now. I love you.” Then you may preach to me about “moving on”. When you’ve smelled the smoke, for days, drifting across the Potomac and known that you smell the bodies of servicemen, flight attendants, pilots, and middle school children on a field trip, then, maybe, just maybe, you can tell me that Americans share the blame for 9/11.
Until you can do these things, until you have made more than a token effort to understand that nine years does not heal the emotional scars of abject terror, you may not look down your sanctimonious nose and tell me about bigotry, hate, and love of freedom.
Someday the Lord shall teach my soul to love and heal the battered psyche of everyone who personally lived through that day. Until that day I shall pray for his guidance and struggle against oppression and terror. I shall serve my country and God- my God, the loving God, the God of forgiveness and righteousness.
You, sirs, are not God.
My religion teaches me to turn the other cheek, to forgive those who have sinned against me as they forgive me when I sin against them. My God is a loving God, his son and prophets espouse love for all mankind, even the most flawed among us. As a lover of this God, as a lover of the Constitution that shapes our government and ensures our freedoms, freedoms I believe to have been handed down quite literally from our Creator, I should forgive the Islamic radicals who visited death and destruction upon my country- upon me.
I’ve also been told that time heals all wounds. I’ve been told I’m educated enough to differentiate between radicals sects and peaceful brethren of the Book.
But, you know, I cannot recall anyone lecturing the survivors of the Bataan Death March about forgiveness and American support of multi-culturism. I don’t recall a Shinto temple being erected anywhere near the watery grave of the Arizona. I don’t recall liberating forces looking into the emaciated faces of Nazi death camp survivors and telling them to suck it up and cease their whining.
There are some wounds that take generations to heal- lifetimes, in fact. Those who lived through the horror have to fade from the Earth before the trauma of the event can be allowed to weaken. Before the grass can grow green over the scarred land and the hatred can dim in men’s eyes, there has to be a generational disconnect.
We are imperfect beings, humans. We do not forgive easily. We struggle with fear, irrational hatred, and bitter memories. We kneel in prayer, before many gods, seeking the Grace to be better, holier, more forgiving.
So, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Governor, you may try to lecture me on the American way and Christian forgiveness, but if the Lord God Almighty struggles daily to teach me that lesson, just how successful are you going to be?
When you have run into a shattered, burning, building to save complete strangers, or wrestled with knife wielding madmen in a vow to live, and die, as you chose, then you may lecture us on the American Way. When you have served one single day in a hostile foreign land, shot at, maimed emotionally and physically in dogged pursuit of the human abominations behind terrorism, then you may remind us of the duties of a citizen.
When you have stood and watched your co-workers and the people you passed in the hallways burn to death in a man-made hell on Earth, you can lecture us on forgiveness. For shame Mayor Bloomberg, for you personally. Can you not recall watching bodies plummet from the skies? Many may have forgotten that particular horror in a sea of cataclysmic images- the American press is too “sensitive” to publish those pictures any more. But you, a citizen, a LEADER, of that scarred city should never, ever, forget.
When you have made a call to your mother telling her: “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know where they want us to go. I have to go now. I love you.” Then you may preach to me about “moving on”. When you’ve smelled the smoke, for days, drifting across the Potomac and known that you smell the bodies of servicemen, flight attendants, pilots, and middle school children on a field trip, then, maybe, just maybe, you can tell me that Americans share the blame for 9/11.
Until you can do these things, until you have made more than a token effort to understand that nine years does not heal the emotional scars of abject terror, you may not look down your sanctimonious nose and tell me about bigotry, hate, and love of freedom.
Someday the Lord shall teach my soul to love and heal the battered psyche of everyone who personally lived through that day. Until that day I shall pray for his guidance and struggle against oppression and terror. I shall serve my country and God- my God, the loving God, the God of forgiveness and righteousness.
You, sirs, are not God.
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