Deep Thoughts and Knowledge Bombs

Yesterday, my mother asked me what I think about the proposed mosque at Ground Zero. I told her that I support it. A look of shock and horror came over her face as if I said I support the impalement of kittens.

“Don’t you think it’s a slap in the face?” she said and took the defensive.

First of all, it’s not at Ground Zero. It’s two blocks away from it. Yes, that’s near proximity, but there’s a fundamental difference between near and on.

Second, the First Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion. As hard as it is for some, including my mother, to imagine, there are religions other than Christianity. To deny a place of worship, regardless to its proximity to the hallowed ground of a place of immeasurable national suffering, is unconstitutional. Yes, the country was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs, but that doesn’t make any other religion less valid or less protected by the First Amendment.

Finally, my mother attempted to liken it to building a Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor. First of all Shinto is a rather disorganized indigenous form of spirituality practiced by a little over 100 million people, not one of the world’s major religions. Islam is practiced by one and a half billion people all over the world. And, as hard as it is to accept, the 9-11 acts were not perpetrated by Islam. They weren’t even perpetrated by a single country. They were acts of a fringe group of 500 to 1000 operatives with a hell of an axe to grind against the United States. It’s safe to say that the majority of the other 1,499,999,000 Muslims don’t want to blow us up.

So there’s my two cents. Spend it wisely.

Do you ever get the feeling that something isn’t quite right with the world and it makes you oddly antsy? Like something big is just around the corner? Something that has the potential to really fuck up your current frame of mind?

That’s how I feel.

It’s the day after Tax Day in America. And my world feels uneasy. There were massive protests across the land. Protesting the government. Protesting its policies. Protesting the protesters.

Sometimes I wonder if either side has taken a step back to see what they’re really doing. To see that their hostilities are creating animosity. The same animosity that Abraham Lincoln warned against when he said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

When did politics become a playground for the belligerent? When did we abandon discourse in favor of discord? Where has the civility and faith in the system gone?

America was founded on the idea that the people would have a voice through democratic representation. And since its founding, this idea of having a voice and exercising one’s right to use that voice has been the driving factor in some of the biggest cultural, social and political changes to befall this nation. Abolishment of slavery. Women’s suffrage. Civil rights. Hell, even Prohibition. Each are proof that the system works. That the will of the people is reflected in the policies that govern them. Democracy works.

But these protests of late send a completely different message - that democracy only works if my side wins. Even though those in office have been elected according to the democratic practices that have been in place for almost 250 years, the fact they won is proof that the system no longer works.

Since becoming politically aware, the horses I’ve backed have won some and lost some. The losses are sometimes hard to stomach, but I’ve never seen them as a gross injustice. That’s the nature of democracy. Sometimes you’re in the majority. Sometimes you’re in the minority. You win some. You lose some. That’s how the system works.

You don’t threaten elected officials. You don’t incite the masses. And you don’t automatically label those who don’t happen to agree with you a “Socialist”, “Muslim”, “Racist” or “Anti-Christ”. You just go about your business with faith that the system is working for the majority. You swallow your pride, regroup and trust that, eventually, the cyclical nature of the system means that your side will prevail.

So, I suppose my point is this: Hostility never helped anyone. It only leads to animosity. And that animosity is the greatest threat to our nations - not the person or party in power. It takes civility and compromise on both sides to ensure America’s future.