The shooter who staged the Orlando massacre lived less than 30 minutes from my home. Nearby lives another man, the one who knew the shooter and performed his civic duty years ago when he notified the FBI of potentially erratic behavior. Yesterday, his story made national headlines:
(Washington Post).
(USA Today).
His name is Mohammed Malik. We exchanged friendship on FaceBook over a year ago. We share a mutual interest in human rights and cultural exchange within our community. Since then, we share email messages and an occasional lunch together.
We met more than a year ago through a online forum run by our local newspaper. Over another writer, another guest column, another impassioned plea for tolerance. Trolls assailed the writer and his Op-Ed viciously. I spoke up in his defense; but no one else. Mohammed thanked me. It was the start of our friendship.
Today, another column in our local newspaper, again written by my friend. And again the trolls are ganging up. Vicious stuff. It never ends.
I’ll be busy for the next few days … again speaking on behalf of my friend.
In the online edition of our local newspaper, there is one troll in particular who stands out. With disturbing, unhinged verbal abuse against my friend, Mohammed Malik. Here is my reply to this turkey:
ReplyDeleteWilliam Addeo,
I am curious about your last name, your ancestry, when your ancestors came to America, and how your ancestors were treated.
According to MyHeritage.com, the geographic distribution of your last name is roughly: Italy 57%, USA 36%, Brazil 4%, and Kazakhstan 2%. Yes, Kazakhstan. Perhaps you have distant relatives in Kazakhstan who are Muslim?
America may have a proud immigrant tradition, but it also has an ugly history of discriminating against new arrivals. In New Orleans, 1891, eleven Italian immigrants were lynched by a mob. One prominent New York newspaper referred to them as “cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins."
John Parker, the man who organized the lynching, later become governor of Louisiana. He described these early Italian-American immigrants as “lawless and treacherous.”
I am curious. Do these epithets still apply? I am curious, Mr. Addeo. Are you a bandit? An assassin? Lawless and treacherous? Just like John Parker spoke of your forbearers?
Beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on. It appears, Mr. Addeo, that you have become the new John Parker.
I am proud to call Mohammed Malik my friend. He proves his citizenship everyday … with courage and fortitude. (Which is more than I can say about Mr. Addeo)
Stanford Erickson is a retired newspaper CEO living in Vero Beach and a sometime contributor to our local rag, along with Mohammed and myself. Erickson replied to Captain Fogg's comment, and I responded to Erickson, as follows:
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------------
STANFORD ERICKSON: “No where in Christian doctrine does it justify what you have mentioned … The difference is that Sharia Law does justify these actions.”
When you retired from journalism and cleaned your desk for the last time, it appears you removed a critical skill to the dumpster when you left the business. Your comment is mired in motivational bias, as examples:
Sean Harris, senior pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina: Parents should ‘punch’ their effeminate children.
Evangelist James Dobson: Kill Transgender People Using Public Bathrooms
Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina: Put gays and lesbians in an electrified pen and kill them off.
Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful World Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona: “The Bible says that homosexuals should be put to death, in Leviticus 20:13."
Senior Pastor Robby Gallaty of the Brainerd Baptist Church near large Chattanooga, Tennessee: “Go to Leviticus 20:13. God gives us the punishment for engaging in these sins … They must be put to death.”
These are American clerics preaching an extremist doctrine on American soil. Your bias blindsides you. When you retired from journalism, you transitioned into a troll.
I'm not going back there to look. I've been avoiding that hell hole for years after getting death threats from the good Christians and upright Republicans. The bastions of ignorance are impenitrable, the bulwarks of stupidity and faith and tribal violence.
ReplyDeleteThey piss on the graves of our founding fathers, defecate on the monuments to our victory over government by divine right, but no malediction, no mountain of fact nor any words at all will change even a tiny bit of it. Words die, truth passes away but evil is always here and stupidity never dies. No religion is any better than the people who practice it and define it and history teaches that there is little defense within any faith to the rot from within. I would say "Dman these people" but I can't damn them. They're already damned.