May I point out that salt only affects open wounds. As horrible as 9-11 was, It's been almost 9 years. How long are we gonna root our finger around in this "wound" before we leave it be and allow it to scab over and BUILD SOMETHING THERE!
And isn't there a Mosque IN The Pentagon? Weren't there probably places for Islamic people to pray IN the hospitals that 9-11 victims were taken to? How sensitive are we suppose to be?
The other day I heard someone compare it to putting a Neo-Nazi sign outside a Holocaust Memorial. I didn’t see who it was because I wasn’t looking at the TV because I DETEST the news, but what the (expletive deleted) is THAT supposed to mean? He is saying that that Nazis are to the Holocaust what terrorists are to 9-11, and while that IS true he also in that statement implies that ALL Muslims are terrorists. You know in the same way ALL Germans are Nazis... and ALL Catholic Priests are pedophiles and All Irish people are drunks and All black people are criminals and ALL mexicans are lazy. I’m wondering if the people hosting the show he was on laughed him out of the studio. Probably not because it was probably on some cable news network that panders to a certain kind of people (you know, like ALL cable news networks do because they are just a business selling a product to a demographic).
Let me set the scene for my tale of political intrigue. I was in a break-room at a Ralphs grocery store I have never been to before (part of my job involves going to different Ralphs stores in Southern California and listen to my iPod or something like that). The man on the TV was talking about the "Ground Zero Mosque" and a Ralphs employee at the back of the room said something to the effect of, "kind of ironic that the terrorists blow the buildings up and then they let them build their temple right by where they did that". In retrospect, I should have just corrected her miss-use of the word "irony" but instead I said, "But, not all Muslims are terrorists." To which she replied in an angry and befuddled way AND I QUOTE,"Guh! Pft! Yes they are!" I remained quiet thereafter, but she didn't. She went on to talk about how Obama is O.K. with it because he is a Muslim and a non-citizen to which another Ralphs employee said AND I QUOTE ONCE MORE, "Well, yeah. I know all that. But what about my completely asinine comment" or something to that effect. I then exited the break-room as the woman began the fire and brimstone portion of her speech.
I kept thinking throughout the day about how crazy that lady was and then on the way home I thought of something. I realized that she thought I was just as crazy as I believed her to be. Maybe even more so.
We can't both be crazy because we can't both be right. There is always the possibility that we are both wrong and the truth lies, as it so often does, on some middle ground, but not in this case I don't think. But what do I know? What does ANYBODY know? We are all just somebody's demographic after all and they tell us what they think we should know so we will buy their books and door hangers and such.
People need to remember that whatever you believe in, there is someone who believes the polar opposite just as firmly as you do and before you can have a real discussion about something important with them you HAVE to take their point of view as seriously as they do or the conversation will deteriorate into personal attacks. If you debate someone by upholding your viewpoint and simply poo-pooing your opponents, all you have accomplished is making one side look like a jerk and the other look like they are being picked on. In the end you have done nothing to convince anyone of anything. You have only preached to the choir, which I believe is a metaphor for redundant behavior.
WOW, this entry was disjointed! I guess this is how my brain works. Sorry.
