Well it seems that I am going to have to comment on the non mosque planned for New York City.
You all know what I am talking about here. Yes, the "ground zero mosque". Yep, THAT mosque.
Well, for starters, it is NOT a mosque. It is a community center. The community center will include a basketball court and I even read that it is to have a swimming pool. It will have an area set aside for prayer.
Now while I do not live in New York city or state, I don't see why a community center could be a bad thing. As I understand it, it is planned as a place for ALL people to meet and possibly come to understand each other better. To my way of thinking this can only be a good idea.
Oh, some may say, the imam who is behind this community center is a "terrorist". Well, if that is so, why was he on a program on Faux Noise where he was proclaimed as a "good" Muslim?
The "idea"(??) that some how the "ground zero" in New York, New York is some sort of "sacred" ground is, to me, obscene. The whole bit of calling the site of the now destroyed World Trade Center as "ground zero" is incorrect. Until 9/11, or very shortly there after, the term "ground zero" had only been used to describe the place where a nuclear bomb had been detonated. Now this term is being used to describe an attack by nineteen radicals, the majority of whom were from Saudi Arabia, NOT Afghanistan or Iraq.
Well, I suppose that calling this site "ground zero" is just another example of how "9/11 changed everything". Yes, words mean what the writer or speaker wants them to mean, forget anything like dictionary definitions or past usage, that is now all different. Yep, thanks to 9/11, ALL is changed.
The "controversy over this community center, which is located far enough from the "sacred ground" that neither can be seen from the other. There is NO direct line of sight between the two. Also, there are many other businesses much closer to this new "sacred ground" that many people would not even care to visit. This IS New York city, where strip clubs can be across the street from a church. Why so upset over this community center?
Well, this weekend Washington D.C. had the "honor" of hosting the Glenn BEck "restoring our honor" rally. From what I have read on it, the turn out was fair, about 200,000 or so people. The National Park Service does not give counts for these sort of events according to most reports I have seen. No doubt Mr. Beck and Ms. Palin will try to claim numbers closer to one million. No doubt some "tea party" folks will echo that claim. Personally, I doubt they had more than 200,000 IF they had that many.
Now there were restrictions placed on the speakers. No kidding, honest, they were told that it could not be a political rally. That requirement was put on the rally by the main beneficiary of the rally. The group, Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) placed the "no politics" deal on the rally. This organization is not a political outfit and they do not want to be associated with a political event.
Money raised from the rally will be donated to SOWF, but, only after all expenses are paid. You know how that goes, they first have to pay form items like the port-a-potties and other items used by and for the rally. I wonder if "expenses" also includes the "speakers fees" that falin' Palin will collect for her yak to the folks who attended the rally.
Now maybe I am just some far out radical "professional" leftist, but I would think that the former half-term quitter of a governor would have given the speech for free. Oh, I'd have no trouble having her air fare paid by the organizers of the rally. Of course that would mean she would have to fly coach. Well, it was always the only way I ever flew, so if it was good enough for me, it sure would be good enough for her. Of course, I was never, nor will I ever be, a "celebrity". Then again, to my old fashioned thinking, neither is a half-term quitter any sort of "celebrity".
Yes, you can now see what I have finally come to see, old charlie (me) actually IS a member of the "professional" left. Yes, I see no problem with the proposed community center a few blocks away from and unseen from the "sacred" site of the 9/11 "ground zero". I also fail to see how a half-term quitter of a governor is a "celebrity" of any sort.
All this of course puts me deeply into the "professional" left in things here in old 'Merikkka, 2010. Yes, I believe that meeting and learning about people from different cultures and religions is a good thing. I believe that allowing people of different religions and cultures to open a community center, all people welcome, is a good thing for all of us.
I still find it odd though, that just having an open mind, a curious mind, makes me part of some "professional" left. All my nearly 63 years on this planet, I had thought that having an open mind, a curious mind, was just a sign of being curious and eager to learn. I never had any idea that I was in any way, being "professional" in that.
semper fi
6 comments:
The world laughs at us, when they see how we squabble over these things.
We are showing the world how ignorant we really are.
And yet we wonder why they do not like us.
There is more behind this than meets the eye. This is a campaign [Crusade] against everything that they do not understand.
What they do not understand they try to control. What they can not control they try to destroy.
This is now our legacy to the world.
Shame on America.
Land of the free home of the brave.
When yhou have people like the Koch Klan brothers, Dick Armey, and the rest of their fellow travelers promoting and financing these lunatics. Then this is what we get.
A country that has lost its honor, soul. We are no longer a shining beacon on a hill.
We are a torch ready to set your house on fire.
We are the drone meisters of the world.
7 more soldiers died in Afghanistan over the week end.
FOR WHAT ??????????
RZ,
I have to agree with you there. We are being laughed at over these non issues. The non mosque should not be news at all. It should just be built and let everybody get on with life.
But, NO, can't be smart, not here in the US of A in 2010. Nope, we have to act very stupid over what should be a non issue.
Same goes with the Beckster. He is a failed, former(?) drug addict Mormon. A third rate entertainer. True, he works for Murdock(sp) who runs more than he should also. Funny that a Saudi is the number two biggest investor in Faux Noise empire.
As to the elephant gang, so many of them named Dick, Armey, Cheney, Nixon.........See a trend?
Sorry, I couldn't pass that up.
The troops keep dying for the lies and the obscene profits for the "too big to fail" banks and other huge corporations.
Enough! Enough of the useless damn fool wars of choice.
That community center in NYC should never have been an issue, but the haters latched on to it as a nice wedge issue in an election year.
It's all part of the divide and conquer by those at the top -- if they can manage to keep ordinary working people fired up about stuff that doesn't really impact their own lives, whether it's gay marriage or different ethnic groups, they're succeeding in diverting attention from the way corporations are trashing the environment, the country's mired in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, and the economy is in the toilet.
I read an interesting piece the other day about how the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan is practically turning cartwheels because they're so happy about the NYC mosque-mess. It's been a propaganda bonanza for them.
Nan,
Yes, the non mosque should have never been an issue. It is like gay marriage, a side issue.
Of course, the way I see things, that is what the media clowns like, side issues that detract from what is really important. All these non issues get the masses worked up and keep them from seeing what is really important.
Now that the "combat"troops are leaving Iraq, no doubt Go-bomber will be crowing about how he "won" that war.
Well, I know how that goes. When I was in Vietnam one of the Army units we had a radio link with changed their name. Why? Well, the "original" unit had been sent back home. They took the unit flag and some paperwork and maybe two enlisted troops and a junior officer to take all that back to the states and it made the news here that the unit had returned to the US. Meanwhile, the rest of the unit was renamed and remained in Vietnam.
Notice that the "combat" troops only have left Iraq. The remaining troops are now classified as "trainers and security". Nice trick. It is just semantics, word games. Smoke and mirrors.
Not only that, but they will be handed over to the State Dept. as their security. Shillary the uber Neo/Zio/Lib/Con will basically have her own army.
And she is a soaring hawk.
We have left the door open to reenter any time they wish.
Yes, Charlie, 9/11 certainly did change everything. We are now a nation running scared. We have trashed our own civil liberties and at least one mideastern country, and we are no more secure now than we were on 9/10.
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