In an age where people like Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and Rick Lazio have a “pulpit” in which to spew their uninformed bullshit — and are taken seriously — it makes me so very thankful there are people, like the folks at Democracy Now!, willing and able to counter their hate!
For a couple weeks, now, the mainstream media has been way too busy reporting what I deem to be the height of idiocy. The Right-Wing, sure, but their blacklash against a “proposed construction of an Islamic community center [not a Mosque] in Lower Manhattan,” specifically. I’ve avoided commenting on it thus far, mainly because it’s so bloody ridiculous, I wasn’t sure where to begin. Then today on Democracy Now! they go and devote an entire broadcast to this very issue. Do yourself a favour, and check it out, for some desperately needed context…
One part in particular of today’s episode that I found much too relevant to leave be is something Talat Hamdani, a guest on the show, had to say. Ms. Hamdani was the Mother of Salman Hamdani, a 23 year old police cadet, an emergency medical technician, and a Muslim who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, September 11th 2001. And in the first part of the conversation, with Amy and Anjali, she spoke no truer words;
That [the backlash against the Islamic Community Centre] is wrong, because if we go by that argument, that we were attacked by a foreign terrorist group, who did this in the name of, you know, my faith, Islam, and hence all the Muslims are terrorists, as has been happening since 9/11, […] if that argument is valid, then, by that token, Timothy McVeigh’s actions also makes all Christians terrorists…
Not that this little fact will change the tide. People, the first 3 morons I named at the start of this piece especially, are ignorant. And it seems they prefer to remain that way. Fair enough. It’s their choice to remain stupid. But when their bullshit starts to affect people, people they are so flagrantly misrepresenting, it’s time to turn the other cheek. Ass cheek, that is. Pucker up, and kiss an ass. Idiots!
But seriously, stop listening to these fools…