Another great moment in American douchebaggery!
Despite the fact that we’re on somewhat of a losing streak in recent years (thanks, Wall Street!), one of the reasons America remains a place so many people want to live is that we do so many things so very well. That whole Constitution thing is pretty swell. The Bill of Rights turned out to be pretty righteous, wouldn’t you agree? And despite our occasional internecine struggles, it’s mostly been a family affair; we are all in this together. We’ve kept it real as one nation under a groove: the black, the white, the red and the brown, the purple and yellow, as that statesman and patriot Wonder Mike once put it.
We keep it real, which isn’t to say that we are not immune from being real wrong. Our mistakes are indelible stains on our history, no matter how hard some of us endeavor to deny or conceal them.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose, eh?
In February, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued. That is, the infamous presidential/executive order that, validated by America’s state of war, gave a president (FDR) the power to consign various ethnic groups (see: the Japanese) to internment camps. Not too coincidentally, the individuals targeted happened to be Americans belonging to the ancestry the U.S. was concurrently fighting in WW II (the aforementioned Japanese, as well as Germans and Italians). Over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were spirited away to these camps. Not unlike the concentration camps, one thinks about this period in history and thinks (hopes?) it was far back in our past. Considering the 20th Century was already half-over puts it in immediate, and painful, perspective. About sixty years ago, millions of Jews were being slaughtered in Germany and tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were being forcibly sent to internment camps. Less than two generations. On good days, we look at this and say “how could it have happened?”. On other days, we look at Guantanamo and it’s difficult to feel too proud of the progress we’ve supposedly made.
This picture has haunted me ever since I first saw it, over a decade ago.
A Japanese family, en route to an internment camp. Neither defiant nor indignant (they could not afford to be), they are quite obviously eager to illustrate their solidarity. Acquiescence. Approbation. The miniature American flags, the victory signs, the smiles. The fear behind those forced gestures. (Not forced because they were fake, but because they were obligatory; imperative as the bare minimum to ensure that the worst was not automatically assumed.) Look closely at how the father sets the tone: he understands the score. Smile, this is your life. The kids are either too old to protest (the older daughter) or too young to fake it (the son). But it’s the young girl in the middle (middle of the picture, middle child in the family) that conveys the intolerable hypocrisy and inhumanity of the situation: she is the only one without a smile on her face or a flag in her hand. She is old enough to understand, but young enough to be understandably petulant about her circumstances. No matter her age, she knows this unwilling exodus is unnatural, unacceptable. And her face (more than a million subsequent words decrying the conditions that led to this embarrassing moment in U.S. history) is able to convey the very human cost of counterproductive policies begat by hysteria.
Never again, one thinks, looking at that picture. It was unfortunate, but that was half a century ago, we’ve evolved into e-mail and instant communication across the globe, certainly we shan’t act that rashly again. Surely we’ve seen enough of this appalling history to ensure that it’s never repeated. Obviously we have made amends and are stronger, as a nation, for what we commissioned in the name of national security. Clearly we could never dive into the deep end again, indulging the uglier side of our collective sensibility. Fortunately we’ve come a long way since the dark ages of our (parents’) infancy.
Haven’t we…
Which brings us to this Quran burning crusade.
Fortunately, it looks like even the most reprehensible ringleaders of anti-Muslim sentiment (see: Sarah Palin) have declared this activity an “unnecessary provocation.” Which begs the question: how far over the edge (and/or desperate for an audience –and cash) are you if you manage to make Sarah Palin sound like a sane voice of restraint? We’ll have plenty of politicians on both side of ideological fence taking an opportunity to talk tough (into cameras) and remind us about American values which, apparently, don’t extend to mosques (that aren’t really mosques) being constructed on Ground Zero (even though it’s not really at Ground Zero).
Personally, I’m grateful to this ”pastor” and the cretins who will put fire to paper on 9/11 in order to prove a point. Because, unbeknownst to these imbeciles, the point they are making is that, as those commercials used to say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. And while we can’t (or shouldn’t) waste too much time trying to convert the willfully ignorant to enlightenment, we can (and should) keep a wary eye on these very un-American activities. How ironic, by the way, is that? As ever, the people most vocal (and ostensibly concerned) about conduct contrary to America know the least about our history, including the intent of those immigrants (!) who wrote the documents they believe they are defending. If you want to strain the metaphor, it might not be unreasonable to suggest that when anyone burns another person’s bible, they are indeed setting ablaze our Constitution.
These folks, who, we know roam our nation in greater numbers than we might have imagined, (and are so easily whipped into a frenzy by their masters), are more than a little behind the evolutionary curve. While Fox News gets their Fascist on, and Rush gorges his fat ass on profitable cynicism, these has-beens and never-will-be’s (the bigots, the uneducated, the willfully ignorant, the impotent imbeciles, as well as the doctors, lawyers, teachers and parents) find the voice that never answers them in church, or at the office, or in their cars, or in the bedroom or –worst of all– in their own dark and empty heads when the lights go out.
One on hand, you have to laugh at these simpletons who want to “bring our country back”, meaning the good old days when blacks and women knew their place, homosexuals dared not show their faces in public and the bible held firmer sway over a greater portion of the populace. Presumably these same tea baggers don’t want to also bring back cars without air conditioning and houses without running water, smallpox without vaccine and surgery without anesthetics and a few dozen other of our least favorite things from a time when the world was a whiter shade of pale.
And it’s not at all difficult to connect the dots between the type of magical thinking employed by the bible thumpers and the Ayn Rand-obsessed Libertarian lunatics (how perfect –and appalling– a commentary on the cultural Koyaanisqatsi we are currently struggling through that the son of the Libertarians’ savior is named after the most humorless and phlegmatic popular novelist of the 20th Century. Painfully popular. And imperceptive. (And influential. Right Alan? Atlas shrugged; Jesus wept.) Indeed, the only redeeming thing I can think about Ayn Rand is that she partially inspired one of Rush’s great early albums.
The part that is not funny, of course, is that this is still happening on our watch. As a nation we are deciding what we tolerate and what we will stomach. It’s useful to know how much work is left to be done, and bigots burning bibles is a reminder that we need to get busy. The last few months leave little question that it will be harder (now, later) to whitewash –pun intended– these regrettable instances. They have been scattered through American history like a resilient rash: those times we remained idle while darker hearts strangled our collective souls.
Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey?
Yes, the dogmatic diatribes that delivers continued divisiveness with derelict disdain. Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, and Bill Maher already found this market. I’d love to read something of yours that was more about reaching out, educating, uniting. Using this public forum for good rather than scorn.
Dave:
First off, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
I would maintain that this blog is most definitely a forum for good and not scorn, but scorn is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, right? (Regarding the “market” that Moore, KO and BM have found, I can assure you I’m not looking for that or any other market; this blog is a public space where I offer ideas and commentary on what I see, hear and feel; no more, no less).
But more to your (legit) point: is there anything I could say to someone who is ready to burn a bible that would fall on receptive ears? Is there a conciliatory gesture I could (or should) make that would open up that closed mind even a little bit? (Certainly the embedded Rush songs, which were not chosen haphazardly, are an attempt to reveal, through art, a miniature history lesson of what the type of intolerance I’m lambasting has wrought.) Put more bluntly, if someone is essentially throwing around their poop and using their 1st Amendment rights to defend it, I would do the same thing I’d do regarding the KKK marching down the street: stop, look, laugh and hope that their idiocy does not extend to their offspring. Hope springs eternal.
Cheers,
Murph
Murph,
I found you through a mutual friend who seems to like and promote your work. Not that your scorn is undeserved of people such as book burners of any society, culture or generation, what I find divisive is the nature in which your words belittle others.
Ignorance and bigotry tend to go hand in hand. You have a penchant for categorizing those in high profile, such as Palin or Rush, in a way that your words will fall of deaf ears for anyone that has an ounce of shared belief with them for whatever reason.
If ignorance leads to bigotry and that leads to a more educated person such as you to scorn and ignore that bigotry, no one has been educated in the process of progressing a society beyond ignorance and bigotry. Clearly a KKK march or book burning event is meant to attract attention. Ignorant attention seekers will continue until they believe they’ve been heard. As you mentioned, you’d rather ignore and scorn.
But who wants to listen to scorn?
Instead, I would engage them into discourse. Start asking questions and as their answers wander inevitably into fantasyland or otherwise unknown territory, offer resources that you have learned from. Try to understand what background they come from that has led them to their continued ignorance and how your continued communication with them could lead to mutual understanding. This takes time and certainly will not be done in one blog post but over time. Otherwise, their next generation will not be better off.
For example, the US is a country of laws. But religion had a major influence on the founding of this country. Many people would like to see this country’s laws and their religious doctrine coexist. That simply can’t be so under a nation that celebrates equality among all people and religions. But many people don’t see that their religious doctrine and their nation’s laws must be separate.
It’s difficult for ignorant bigots (redundant as that may be) to continue their bigotry when they work in close quarters with a subject of their intolerance. But it’s also not easy to get them to start working together either.
I think your eloquence would be better suited for continued discourse with those you consider ignorant. I think you have the communication skills and the patience to make a difference in that direction. Hope may spring eternal, but hard work produces results.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply and I wish you well,
Dave
Hi Sean.
I’m not a political junkie. More of a philosopher. A couple things I note…
Does the dude in Florida have the right as an American to burn the Quran? Yeah. That or the flag or the Bible or whatever. Civil liberties, right?
Do I think it’s wrong for the guy to burn the Quran? Yeah. Because it breaks the Golden Rule. So, he shouldn’t burn a Bible or an American Flag under that logic either. Or put a crucifix in urine.
But, yes, indeedy, he’s got a right.
So, why, SURPRISINGLY, unlike PZ Myers, who defends the guy’s right, are so many liberals telling him to stand down when, if this WAS a Bible, they would cheer?
Because, perhaps rightfully so, and the PZ Myers combox backs me up on this, they are afraid. Afraid of retaliation to our troops, to other innocent Muslim citizens, and perhaps to Americans on our soil.
These are the same people (Obama, Clinton, etc…) who are in support of the Mosque at Ground Zero, who call those who are leary of the Mosque (a vast majority of Americans) bigots.
Yet, these folks seem to be freaking out about one lone guy in Florida upsetting the Muslims so much that we’ll have major bloodshed on our hands. These Muslims must be so STUPID that they can’t help themselves from participating in barbaric behaviour because one guy (ONE GUY), who is almost universally denounced by left and right, is going to burn a Quran (which may actually be written in English, thereby nullifying its validity).
Shouldn’t that be offensive to Muslims, who proclaim a religion of peace? Isn’t that pretty damn patronizing? They can’t discern that this is a lone wolf? I know their media is censored, but wow! Isn’t that sort of generalizing of another people as bad as the racism that hits closer to home? Obama spoke out because he’s AFRAID. And he wants to mollify the thugs. Plain and simple. To be sure, he’s afraid of extremists, but why then poo poo the other Americans who are also afraid of extremists who might do something on our shores? Why call THEM bigots, when they are understandably afraid after the 9-11 attacks?
We’re all afraid. Face it.
Next…
The Japanese internment camps were horrible. The atomic bomb was, as Fulton Sheen called it, our national sin. That being said, you paint these folks sent away to the camps as all cherub faced saints, but WOE unto those fundies. Your vitriol makes me wonder why you aren’t calling for the internment of those you paint with such an ugly wide brush in your piece. Wouldn’t we all be better for it? So the record is: Muslims good, Japanese good, Christians bad. Yay!!! Lock ‘em up!!!! It’s very silly.
Human beings are NOT caricatures. We are all a mixture of good and bad. Further, I think we all generally have good motives. We may disagree and come to very WRONG conclusions on what’s best, but, by illustration, YOUR passion shows you want things to be better. Well, gosh, so do they! The generalizing baffles me, and it makes you sound snobbish. Ick.
I appreciate you taking the time to write down your thoughts. It gives me something to think about and helps me sharpen and question the ideas and beliefs that I hold dear. Thanks again.
Peace out!
Dave,
I guess my point would be that anyone who has fallen under the spell of Palin and Rush (two people who are only –or mostly– in it for the money, making their divisive hate-shtick both cynical *and* sickening) might as well be speaking another language. There is little I suspect I’d be able to say to reach them (and they would be exceedingly unlikely to visit this site anyway). In that regard, certainly my tactics, were I in the difficult-to-imagine scenario of being face-to-face with some of them, would be different. I am, to an extent, preaching to the choir, as I suspect that most of the folks who would even read my work are of similar ideological mind. (Trust me, I have close friends who are die-hard Republicans and I have contentious but respectful debates with them *all the time*) and I don’t welcome, but won’t dismiss, the opportunity to exchange perspective with folks who see the world differently than I do.
Again, what I think we are talking about here is what effect this particular forum (a blog) could –or would– have on someone who watches Fox News. Again, if a potential Koran-burner wanted to engage me in discussion, I’d be willing to share my point of view.
That said, I find the (increasingly invoked) suggestion that people who are disgusted by intolerant bigots are themselves being intolerant (“I am just expressing my political/religious views!”) extremely specious. I’m not (and am not interested in) standing on a soap box and looking down scornfully at these morons; I’m fired up, as an American, that this backwards ignorance–based in fear– is representing our country circa 2010. It’s an embarrassment and there is no room for intelligent debate. If these people want to sit at the big table with the adults, they need to hasten their stalled evolutionary engines and ask themselves the type of questions that spiritual growth demands. Until they do so, I’m not inclined to lower my discourse, or morality, to respect their hate-based bigotry.
Cheers,
Murph
Clare,
I appreciate your engagement with this site, and I definitely dig your lengthy comment –thanks for that.
I think much of what I said in response to Dave would apply to your remarks, but there are a few things that I’m happy to address.
For starters, I think it’s unfortunate that you believe (some? many? all?) liberals would cheer the burning of a (King James) bible. There may be some hardcore atheists and/or equal-opportunity haters who love the anarchic, or antagonistic possibilities of desecrating an object that another person holds dear. I’d say that in their way, those people are just as ignorant and spiritually bankrupt as our pastor in FL. (However, you’ll note that I don’t think the burning of any bible is a sin, or necessarily a problem, per se; and it’s not the desecration of another groups’ bible that offends me; it’s the very secular implications: this is an entire religion and part of our world –and country– that is being demonized and maligned. That is un-American on every conceivable literal and figurative level. Not to mention it’s simply counter-productive, politically).
Surely you don’t fail to see the disgusting irony in genuinely faithful Christians, in seeking to validate their religious and political views, acting almost *identically* to the same Taliban thugs we rightly deplore? This is not hyperbole; the censorship and violence and categorical dismissal of an entire group of people should be absolutely intolerable to anyone who calls themselves Christian, enlightened and/or aware.
(Also: the act of putting a crucifix in urine is both an artistic and personal statement, however dubious or infantile. That a person of genuine faith is disturbed or offended by that says a great deal more about the strength of their faith. And to circle back on the whole atheist thing, which Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher have been notorious for in recent years, no one I know gives two shits about who practices what faith and/or how ardent their personal code is. The key is: personal. Only when people want their faith to encroach on others (putting 10 Commandments in a courtroom?) is it an issue. For any so-called Christian to assert that their faith is under attack in *this* country is simply laughable by any objective measure. I’m sorry if this is not abundantly clear.)
Finally, regarding the charge of “snobbishness”. If people who have been tricked (or willfully convinced) into believing that their faith not only endorses, but demands hatred and intolerance (including violence) toward an entire group of people would find my historically accurate, factually unassailable observations snobbish, I welcome their disdain. To quote the great William Blake “The vision of Christ that thou doth see/Is my vision’s greatest enemy.”
Cheers-
Murph
But who’s defending this guy? I haven’t heard anyone do that. I guess that’s what confuses me with your piece.
I suppose you might bring up people (very few hopefully) who bomb abortion clinics? I give you that they are acting like Taliban thugs, but they are not acting like Christ either. He says:
“To you who hear I say, love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
And then he himself did exactly as he commanded.
Ever since the Reformation, it’s a free for all, especially in Protestant land. Over 30,000 denominations, all claiming to speak for God. Mr. Jones is just another self-appointed Pope. People, it seems, are dying for someone to lead them, and they’re settling for the likes of Palin and Beck (Lord, have mercy). But ooh, I digress
But I think that’s what people are doing with Obama too. And he (or no one) can live up to that kind of hype. (I like digressing)
Your response was helpful. I made a couple of assumptions which were incorrect. That’s why, and I agree with Dave here, dialogue is important.
I’m an odd bird, because I identify with many left wing ideas, but I can’t stomach the utopianism I see too often. “WE’RE gonna fix it this time.” Haha. Whatever. Every human being is, to some measure, a hypocrite, vulnerable to elixirs like power, sex, drugs, money, blah, blah, blah. WHY we’re like that is the topic of another discussion.
Ha. Pretty off topic response, but not really. You may delete me upon moderating. Cheers back at ya!
Clare:
I certainly won’t delete you and I welcome your thoughts.
I think the bottom line, when it comes to Christ and Christians: if more people (be they of faith or not) followed the guidelines he set down, we’d all be a lot better off.
Cheers-
Murph
Murph, Clare and David,
I see truth in all of your points. I am a moderate and can’t stomach some of the lunacy from either left or right. I rather be in the middle, looking at both sides and at times the scale bends a bit left, sometimes a bit right.
I have lived in 3 continents, speak fluently 4 languages, I want to understand people and what moves them to behave a certain way.
I think people are just fed-up. I am fed up with the direction of our country too. I am fed up about bailouts, Wall Street, the job market (I am still looking for work), everything seems to going downhill. So people that identify with Sarah are not idiots, but victims of system where if you come from money and influence, you are going to do well. That is not uniquely American by any means.
Sarah Palin is by no mean an idiot. She has influence, she doesn’t care about foreign affairs (should have stayed out of the Presidency), she would do well as a Senator. She is a successful businesswoman. So I do see good qualities too, not just the ugliness. We all have a good and a bad side, to think otherwise is quite naive.
If you are born in poverty, in a lot of places is hard to pull yourself up. In America perhaps you can become someone, but things are changing and it is making it more difficult for those with less to climb the social ladder. That ladder has lost a few steps.
I understand Claire’s point. Obama is afraid, everyone is afraid to criticize or burn the Koran. Do I condone this? Well, if you live by the First Amendment and believe that everyone should be allowed to express their feelings and voices, then yes. He should do it.
However, my moral judgment, which is MY moral judgment not yours or anyone’s says, no. Why entice hate when hate is already so widely available?
I lived in Europe for many years. Europeans are scared of the extreme section of the population. We have extremes on both spectrum. I am afraid of religion. Period. So, the Muslim extremists have won. Don’t think for one minute that this is not part of their tactics, because if you believe in Freedom to write or express your feelings, there is a line that you cannot cross anymore. So they won and we have lost.
I don’t think we should desecrate the American Flag either. But extremists after 9/11 were chanting “Death to Americans”. I have a problem with that Sean, I have kids, they are Americans, so I take that very personal. I love this country and hate to see the direction it is going. I came here with nothing and gained so much. My country did not give me the opportunities I should have had, but America has.
I hate that we went to war and wasted money on countries that do not really like us. That money would be better off spent here, on schools, on hospitals, on AIDS and cancer research.
Gert Williams is being tried in the Netherlands, of all places, one of the most tolerant societies, for speaking his mind against the Muslims. He is being tried for hate speech. Should we do the same for extremist that dare to call for the death of Americans?
We have to be very careful here. If you believe so dearly in our Constitution, we need to fight for everyone right to say what they want. Even if it is an abomination. I think it is a one sided debate to think that this Pastor needs to be silenced.
Peace.
Correction: we need to fight for everyone’s right.
Must not destroy the language!