Islamiphobia

I can't help but feel part of the problem I detest while posting this blog entry. Rehashing on the topic of the New York mosque only adds to the insanity that is the islamiphobic dialogue polluting our media. In reality people should have left the incredibly narrow minded opinions of a bigoted minority die in quiet solitude. This post is then generated in hopes that the chaotic hate spewed in America may one day be extinct. My own words fail me in describing how such unreasonable hatred is shredding America apart and I feel that I must borrow on Charton Heston's speech. Below is an abridged version of Heston's NRA speech he made in Colorado shortly after the Columbine tragedy. I think the truth found here about the NRA issue speaks just as well for the mosque issue:

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They say, "Don't come." I'm sorry for that. This is our country. As Americans, we are free to travel wherever we want, in our broad land. I guess what saddens me the most is how that suggests complicity. It implies that you and I and 80 million honest gun owners are somehow to blame. That we don't care as much as they do. Or that we don't deserve to be as shocked and horrified as every other soul in America mourning for the people of Littleton. Don't come here. That's offensive. It's also absurd. Because we live here. There are thousands of NRA members in Denver and tens upon tens of thousands in the state of Colorado.

I see our country teetering on the edge of an abyss. At its bottom brews the simmering bile of deep, dark hatred. Hatred that is dividing our country. Politically. Racially. Geographically. In every way, whether it's political vendettas, sports brawls, corporate takeovers, high school gangs and cliques. The American competitive ethic has changed from "let's beat the other guy" to "let's destroy the other guy." Too many, too many are too willing to stigmatize and demonize others for political advantage, for money or for ratings. The vilification is savage.

This harvest of hatred is then sold as news, as entertainment, as government policy. Such hateful, divisive forces are leading us to one awful end: America's own form of Balkanization. A weakened country of rabid factions each less free, united only by hatred of one another. In the past 10 days we've seen these brutal blows attempting to fracture America into two such camps. One camp would be the majority, people who believe our Founders guaranteed our security with the right to defend ourselves, our families, and our country. The other camp would be a large minority of people who believe that we will buy security if we will just surrender these freedoms. This debate would be accurately described as those who believe in the Second Amendment versus those who don't. But instead it is spun as those who believe in murder versus those who don't.

But we're not the rustic reckless radicals they wish for. No, the NRA spans the broadest range of American demography imaginable. We defy stereotype, except for love of country. Look in your mirror, your shopping mall, your church or grocery store. That's us. Millions of ordinary people and extraordinary people. War heroes, sports idols, several U.S. presidents, and yes, movie stars. But the screeching hyperbole leveled at gun owners has made these two camps so wary of each other, so hostile, and confrontational and disrespectful. On both sides. It is forgotten that we are first, Americans. I am asking all of us on both sides to take one step back from the edge. Then another step. And another. However many it takes to get back to that place where we are all Americans. Different, imperfect, diverse, but one nation, indivisible. This cycle of tragedy-driven hatred must stop. Because so much more connects us than that which divides us. And because tragedy has been and will always be with us. Somewhere right now evil people are planning evil things. All of us will do everything meaningful, everything we can do to prevent it. But each horrible act can't become an axe for opportunists to cleave the very bill of rights that binds us. America must stop this predictable pattern of reaction, when an isolated terrible event occurs, our phones ring demanding that the NRA explain the inexplicable. Why us? Because their story needs a villain. They want us to play the heavy in their drama of packaged grief. To provide riveting programming to run between commercials for cars and cat food. The dirty secret of this day and age is that political gain and media ratings all too often bloom on fresh graves.

Reporters perch like vultures on the balconies of hotels for a hundred miles around. Cameras jockey for shocking angles, as news anchors race to drench their microphones with the tears of victims. Injury, shock, grief and despair shouldn't be brought to you by sponsors. That's pornography. It trivializes the tragedy it abuses. It abuses vulnerable people, and maybe worst of all, it makes the unspeakable seem commonplace. We are often cast as the villain. That is not our role in American society, and we will not be forced to play it. Our mission is to remain, as our vice-president said, a steady beacon of strength and support for the Second Amendment, even if it has no other friend on this planet. We cannot -- we must not -- let tragedy lay waste to the most rare and hard-won human right in history. A nation cannot gain safety by giving up freedom. This truth is older than our country. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin said that.

Now, if you disagree, that's your right. I respect that. But we will not relinquish it or be silenced about it, or be told, "Do not come here. You are unwelcome in your own land." Let us go from this place, from this huge room, renewed in spirit and dedicated against hatred. We have work to do, hearts to heal, evil to defeat, and a country to unite. We may have differences, and we will again suffer tragedy almost beyond description. But when the sun sets on Denver tonight, and forever more, let it always set on We, the People. Secure in our land of the free and home of the brave.

-------- Charlton Heston, April 1999