Nearly nine years after the attacks on New York and Washington, the World Trade Center towers have become like the relics of some saint to be preserved in some myth if not in a jar while the contrived phrase "they hate us for our freedoms" echoes in mockery while one by one, the freedoms we pretend are a reason for their resentment are put against a wall and shot -- by us.
Any war, just or unjust, aggressive or defensive, necessary or the result of lies, is a test of the freedoms of speech and of the press. This alleged war has been a test of freedom from unreasonable searches as well, but now even freedom of religion is being tested both in the legislature and by the propaganda organizations with seemingly unlimited money, power and influence over the rage addled minds of the public. The millions of riders on the New York Transit system will soon be reading ads showing yet another picture of the twin towers and an airliner along with a crescent. Why There? it asks. Because we have freedom of religion, I answer. Because the government may not legislate against the free exercise of a religion or determine that one religion is to be preferred over another, I say to the ignorant, uncaring mob and the sinister forces that play them like pawns.
Does anything support the myth, popular in Islamic countries, that the US is out to destroy them and to kill Muslims better than this ad, this attitude, this anger? Of course we're eager to engineer Armageddon and so are they. Of course the Terrorists have won, since to bankrupt and confuse us and weaken us and set us against our principles and best interests was exactly what they set out to do. A popular uprising against justice and the rule of law has been the goal of many but none has been so successful in my lifetime as what has been accomplished by bin Laden and the Neocon Republicans with the aid of various radical supremacist groups foreign and domestic.
Why there? Well to be truthful it isn't there, only near there, but the answer is the same as it is to the question of why we didn't forbid radical Christian churches in Oklahoma City or the political anti-government speech that brought about the Federal Building attack and continues to fester. Because we all have the right to worship without interference from anti religious groups and from the government. That would be the government that's supposed to stay out of our lives, but only if we're of an approved religion.
We don't forbid KKK meetings even in neighborhoods full of people the Klan hates. We allow Tea Party extremists to wave guns at political rallies and threaten the lives of the president's family and to overthrow the government by force. We allow Christian churches to preach about the coming destruction of the Jews, the infidels and the end of the world anywhere they damn well please. But they're not Muslims, as a rule.
Our founding fathers offered praise for Islam, told Muslim leaders this was not a Christian country. There have been Muslim citizens in this country for centuries. There are millions of born in the USA Muslims in civilian and military life. When you take away the rights of one citizen for illegal reasons, you take away the rights of all and indeed if "they" hate us for being free, they're effective in making us less so and with our eager cooperation.
There's a bell tolling for us, for our freedom, for our souls and that thing up there in the steeple, wrapped in the flag and ringing it doesn't look anything like Osama.
Exactly!
ReplyDeleteThe essential question one must ask regarding any effects that Park 51 will have on radical Islam is this: what course of action gives more ammunition to Al Qaeda and other extremist groups.
Is it the ability to construct a community center and place of worship near one of the sites of 9/11 tragedy? A center headed by a Vice Chair of the Interfaith Center of New York. An Imam who stated: "Fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam. That's just as absurd as associating Hitler with Christianity, or David Koresh with Christianity. There are always people who will do peculiar things, and think that they are doing things in the name of their religion. But the Koran is... God says in the Koran that they think that they are doing right, but they are doing wrong."
Or is it the course of action where the same firebrands who push for aggression and intervention in the Middle East, are now leading a national campaign to spurn the principles of our Republic based on fear, hatred and emotion? Politicians who state any variation of the following: "America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could." - Newt Gingrich
Buildings don't commit acts of terror, terrorists do.
Osama's stated goal was to "[bleed] America to the point of bankruptcy" through the use of a "war of attrition". GWB may have well have been OBL's willing accomplice.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Right wing's opposition to the mosque -- it's more fear mongering. No trial for KSM in NY, so obviously it works.
And, although I'm not so sure they're going to stop this Mosque, they have accomplished their goal of riling up their base -- and making this an issue to run against progressives on.
Captain, you've left me virtually speechless except for a repeated chorus of yes, yes, yes! Brilliantly written and so on target! If only I had the authority to force people to read your words, this needs to be heard far and wide. I wish that the Obama administration would have even half of the clarity of thought that you demonstrate in this post in addressing the American public about the reality of what we are doing to "our country" in giving in to betraying the core values that have been our shining beacon of right and justice. We've erred before but we've never gone so far into the darkness of fear. I'm posting a link on my Facebook page and to my Twitter account.
ReplyDeleteI tried to argue the point but I should have read your post first.
ReplyDeleteGood job and well written.
Thanks all. I don't think I'm too far from objective reality when I see this country rejecting itself like someone with an autoimmune disease. Such conditioins were very much in the minds of those who designed our government as the chief argument against democracy was fear of the passions of the mob and the ability of some to steer them to their own uses.
ReplyDeleteWe're saturated in bigotry involving class, race, ethnicity, education and even intelligence and those goddamn smoking buildings and all those goddamn hypocrites swooning and mourning and crying salty tears over them are inseparable in my mind from the Battleship Maine, the Alamo and even the Reichstag -- the burning cross of yet another hate movement. We're drowning in mythology and choking on our own rage.
It's better in the Bahamas.
Reasoned logic. Why can't Republicans see this logic? As Spock would say, they are illogical. I would say they are stupid and hatefilled.
ReplyDeleteThere being less and less room for dumbassery in the world, it's doubtless frustrating for them. No wonder they long for a world that they can understand.
ReplyDeleteYou are at your most eloquent on this subject--more eloquent, in fact, than anyone I've read who addresses it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, but I'm not trying to be. It wouldn't do any good if I were and if God almighty were to broadcast to us all telling us how stupid we were, that wouldn't do any good either.
ReplyDeleteI don't like slippery slope arguments, but madness does tend to build on madness to the point where only a cataclysm can stop it. I don't like cataclysms.
I was going to cross-post a piece I wrote on the nationwide protests against building mosques. I checked in first, saw this eloquent article and said no way.
ReplyDelete"There's a bell tolling for us, for our freedom, for our souls and that thing up there in the steeple, wrapped in the flag and ringing it doesn't look anything like Osama."
Too poignant. You intimidate me.
Don't let me discourage you. There's a lot more to be said and that needs to be said.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone report that the proposed Community Center is to include a memorial to the 9/11 victims and that the people behind it have been leaders in opposing terrorism?
No, America doesn't want to hear it. America wants another lynching and after so many years of being restrained from their customary witch hunts and pogroms and race riots, they will take this one and run with it like a hyena with a chunk of carrion.
To all,
ReplyDeleteSimply put, one very good reason to put a new mosque up near "ground zero" is that it makes anti-American fanatics look like idiots. It's an embarrassment to them that we should be open-minded enough to allow such a building to be placed near there rather than giving in to our own advocates of ignorance, pitchforks and fire. It's also an embarrassment to them that our constitution forbids the government to take sides on the issue of religion.