President Obama has taken a major step toward concluding one of GW Bush’s wars, just as he pledged to do before he ever took office. While it’s not “Mission Accomplished” and 50,000 will remain to advise, assist, train, and equip Iraqi Security Forces, it is a time to honor the 5,640 who made the ultimate sacrifice; the almost 40,000 who have been wounded; and to salute those who have come back. Let’s hope our country now does the right thing by taking care of them the way they deserve.
While not the same homecoming my late older brother Ed received when returning from Viet Nam in the mid-1960’s, I know he would have wanted this for those returning from Iraq today.
Welcome home, it must feel awesome to be back!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
This Mosque Thing
I can understand the emotional aspect of the whole thing, even though, once given all of the facts about the actual location, it all seems like much ado about nothing. The mosque is not at Ground Zero, it's at an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory building two blocks down the street. Since when is the Burlington Coat Factory sacred?
Note: for those of us who do not live in or are familiar with NYC, understand that this is a controversy created by the NY Post - Rupert Murdoch - who should be arrested and deported for sedition.
To believe that building a religious center is an "insult" or a "victory monument" is to believe that those who perpetrated 9/11 represent the entire Muslim religion. There will be no domes, there will be no calls to prayer, it is going to be a cultural center. There are mosques everywhere in this country, and people worship there peacefully.
All people of the Muslim faith are no more terrorists than all white males of the Catholic church are pedophiles. The monsters that flew the planes on 9/11 are the exception, not the rule, just like those good ole Christians who kill doctors and bomb clinics, or tie people of color to the back of a truck and drag them down the road are not indicative of all white people. 9/11 was not an attack by Muslims or the Nation of Islam, but an attack by terrorists on all of humanity, including Muslims.
Religion has got its hands on the throat of America and is choking the life out of every issue: cultural center in NY, gay rights, abortion, supporting candidates who are inferior but say enough Bible speak to get elected and so on. The problem isn't Islam, the problem is ALL religion and the nuts who follow them.
The GOP always has to run on fear: fear of gays, of Muslims, flag burning, and of minorities, particularly our black President. They are smart enough to know that their base is generally under educated, overly religious and abundantly armed, and nothing gets them more riled than fear. What the GOP does not think about is the future. Most Republican leaders will be dead in twenty years so they really don't care what happens. Do they not see that the majority of Americans no longer look like Mitch McConnell, the white-haired grump or old Grandpa Angry Pants, John McCain?
In the end, you can't educate people who are proud of their ignorance. How miserable must their lives be to choose hate over tolerance. In theory all of NYC is Ground Zero then. And DC. And Pennsylvania.
Sadly, the only one laughing at us is Osama Bin Laden.
Note: for those of us who do not live in or are familiar with NYC, understand that this is a controversy created by the NY Post - Rupert Murdoch - who should be arrested and deported for sedition.
To believe that building a religious center is an "insult" or a "victory monument" is to believe that those who perpetrated 9/11 represent the entire Muslim religion. There will be no domes, there will be no calls to prayer, it is going to be a cultural center. There are mosques everywhere in this country, and people worship there peacefully.
All people of the Muslim faith are no more terrorists than all white males of the Catholic church are pedophiles. The monsters that flew the planes on 9/11 are the exception, not the rule, just like those good ole Christians who kill doctors and bomb clinics, or tie people of color to the back of a truck and drag them down the road are not indicative of all white people. 9/11 was not an attack by Muslims or the Nation of Islam, but an attack by terrorists on all of humanity, including Muslims.
Religion has got its hands on the throat of America and is choking the life out of every issue: cultural center in NY, gay rights, abortion, supporting candidates who are inferior but say enough Bible speak to get elected and so on. The problem isn't Islam, the problem is ALL religion and the nuts who follow them.
The GOP always has to run on fear: fear of gays, of Muslims, flag burning, and of minorities, particularly our black President. They are smart enough to know that their base is generally under educated, overly religious and abundantly armed, and nothing gets them more riled than fear. What the GOP does not think about is the future. Most Republican leaders will be dead in twenty years so they really don't care what happens. Do they not see that the majority of Americans no longer look like Mitch McConnell, the white-haired grump or old Grandpa Angry Pants, John McCain?
In the end, you can't educate people who are proud of their ignorance. How miserable must their lives be to choose hate over tolerance. In theory all of NYC is Ground Zero then. And DC. And Pennsylvania.
Sadly, the only one laughing at us is Osama Bin Laden.
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