International News at Six
Everyone is condemning Rev. Terry Jones for his plan to burn Korans down in Florida on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of 9/11. And so they should.
“He shouldn’t do it!” They’re right for a myriad of reasons; but, they are wrong in one important way. The good Reverend has given the world a teachable moment that every leader, pundit and person I’ve read has ignored.
People around the world hate us, for good and bad reasons. Afghani’s are chanting “death to America” and General Petraeus is spooked, as are the President and assorted members of Congress.
Here in the good old U.S.A. whackos are tolerated. Without going all legal on you, they have the “right” to wackiness. Say or do what you will, just don’t hurt someone. And I don’t mean injury to sensitivity.
Wouldn't it be cool if President Obama and and say, John Boehner issued a joint invitation to visit the National Mall on Saturday? “We've had MLK, Mr. Beck, Governor Palin here to say what they wanted to say. We’re inviting everyone that can make it to come on down, listen to some speeches about what America is really about. Sit down on the grass, take your shoes off, dip your feet in the water and stay awhile."
It would make the news all over the world and be contrasted with footage of the Reverend and a few of his followers (and a background of jeering protesters of the protest) trying to fire up some books and being stopped by police and firefighters.
Doesn’t that send a powerful image to the people that hate us? Damn, all those Americans at the Mall and few nuts down in Florida. Maybe we have to rethink this Great Satan thing. Couldn’t hurt.
5 comments:
We're trying too hard to impress people who will never like us.
I know we don't want to see escalated violence against our service personnel abroad but hello! Our service personnel are still being blown to bits by these same people we're trying to get to like us.
Why bother?
That warmongerer has his Right to burn whatever he chooses to burn because he's an American doing it here in America. And I have the Right to call him a warmonger and con artist.
Cordially
Debo's first line strikes me as... right??
But why won't they ever like us? The two reasons that I come up with, the clash in faith and how they understand theirs and the fact that we have come over to their country and killed and disrupted their way of life in an attempt to do 'something' to their culture are not things easily forgiven or overlooked.
As long as they read what they do from the Qu'aran, they would never embrace us. Now that we have trod all over their culture and country, they never will.
I like the idea of having a big discussion to overshadow Rev. Jones and his book burning. Sounds like a winner.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around a 21st century book-burning.
The good old Media is partly to blame for this circus. If they would just start ignoring these whackos in the first place this would be a non event.
Sonja's Mom: Correct!
Florida "Rev." Wingnut has the right to burn whatever he chooses (unless it runs afoul of the local fire regulations or arson statutes) -- and we have the right to ignore the blithering idiot.
Now, here's the real question: Why is this a story? How did we get to the point where such luminaries as General Petraeus, Secretary of State Clinton, Pope Benedict XVI et al. are reacting to this non-news? We are talking about a guy with a "church" of maybe 50 members -- kicked out of his church in Germany for dipping into the church funds for personal use -- understandably estranged from his own family (source)-- a pathetic loser grasping for his 15 minutes of fame by doing the most stupid thing you can think of. If you told me al Jazeera had discovered this "story" and was promoting it, and the MSM picked it up accordingly, I'd believe it and, possibly, understand. But that's probably not what happened, is it?
BTW, your suggestion about Messrs. Obama and Boehner issuing a joint invitation to the nation to come on down to the National Mall and hear some talks about what we all have in common as Americans strikes me as so sensible and correct that it could never, ever happen.
*Sigh*
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