Honest to god, I don’t know why today of all days I got so worked up over the verbal fraces for the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. But it’s gotten to the point where I really want to physically bonk people in the head… and that’s bad.
While the rest of the world go frothing at the mouth about it, I was actually capable of minding my own business while on the inside I’m thinking, “Why are these people so OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS?”.
But not today. Today I feel all kinds of geram towards idiocy. You see, unlike say, the aid flotilla to Gaza, it’s hard to take a centrist stance on this one when one side makes arguments that holds water as well as a colander can. I’m not here to make nuanced rebuttals against them. This is my attempt at expelling all my geram-ness into words because I really cannot tahan the horrifyingly bigoted and unreasoned reasonings that I’ve heard anymore.
Mostly, I feel like this: >___<
People are ready to jettison civility and rationality when confronted with a problem that is larger than them and is too complex to solve, in place they find the lowest common denominator — and I do mean lowest — by inciting fear, and anger, and maligning the ‘other’. In this case, because they hurt you, you have to hurt others, right? It’s like a case from Criminal Minds gone macro, PTSD for the masses.
Those who perished on 9/11 cannot be honoured by hate, and to see their memories being thrown around in the name of veiled and outright racism is more profane than dancing on their graves.
You know, it’s so much easier to just be sheep again, following the other stupid ones. Just search for the name of the Imam of the mosque on youtube – you’ll see that thousands have watched the FOX hate propaganda ABOUT him. But hardly anybody watched the debate among all kinds of religious leaders (at the Davos 2006 meeting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFMdb8u59Tw . Or his videos about the need for tolerance and for US muslims needing to find an identity and unity (like all other groups from a same religion coming together in the US did).
I’m an atheist, and he is one of the few religious people who make some kind of sense to me. He supports what I always say I don’t need any kind of religion for (or, more precisely, where most world religions deviated extremely badly from their own teachings – yes, I did read the bible! and yes, I can’t believe most religious freaks did just that and came up with what they are spouting): be peaceful, try to be your best, DON’T HATE!
But, you know, if you watch those movies, you actually need to listen and make up your own mind. And that is apparently too difficult for a lot of people.
“Bahhh!”