Wednesday, August 18, 2010

With Clear Eyes and a Full Heart

I’m sitting in a little room with some bossy testers this morning, asking for help on nearly every script they run. I’m doing my best to avoid rolling my eyes or sighing deeply with every question. It’s been fairly uneventful to say the least. All the while, I’ve kept my headphones on with Hailey Williams belting out Paramore song after song. I think I’ve fallen for her voice as my new guilty pleasure. I’ve hardly heard the lyrics, but loving each and every second of this teenage temper tantrum.

It definitely beats my mood around all of the debate regarding the proposed site of a Mosque being built near Ground Zero in New York. New polls hitting the news services this morning show upwards of 70% of people polled in NYC are opposed to it, mainly because of the religious faith of the terrorist cowards that attacked the World Trade Center in 2001. I have to say that I’m appalled at the reactions of Americans opposing a building being erected, since that is all it is, a building. What takes place inside of that building has nothing to do with the acts of a few religious zealot nutbags on September 11th, except that they share the same religious beliefs as the people who seek to build a Mosque. It’s now also a political position as senate and mayoral races are in play in New York, polls are actually showing results of popularity based on a candidates position on the building and it’s location, ridiculous. There’s also the constitutionality argument, which some of these same pollers are all in favor of ignoring for the purpose of refusing to allow this build to happen. Hypocrites I tell you! We, Americans, are in this country because those that came before us, needed to escape religious persecution. It wasn’t business, it wasn’t mans need to conquer, it was to have the freedom to pray as we wanted, to live in a world where religion was allowed to each man and woman. The men who drafted the constitution knew this as well and ensured that religious persecution would not be allowed in this, our America. Now that someone’s feelings are being hurt with a reminder of tragic events with the placement of a building, they are willing to start tearing out pieces of the constitution to fit their needs. It’s a sad day in America folks. I understand the tragedy of events on 9/11, I understand loss and sadness and the anger that comes along. I know what it’s like to be reminded of tragedy and it never gets easier, the sadness and anger stay. Perpetuating that anger and hatred based on someone’s religious beliefs and where they meet doesn’t fix anything. In this entitlement world we’ve built for ourselves, we’ve moved beyond the constitution and it’s inherent rights, we’re tweaking them to fit our needs, and now persecuting others for the same reasons our forefathers left Europe. We’re finding people guilty by association, and not even physical association, but worse and a larger stretch, religious. I’m saddened, I truly am. As a parent who teaches tolerance and acceptance, equality and forgiveness, my son is growing up in a world that I’m starting to no longer recognize. The racial and religious climate has gotten so heated in the past 18 months, that I cannot believe there was ever a time when reasonable people were at the same table to abolish slavery, draft equal rights legislation and even allow women to vote. I’m perplexed by the thousands of openly hateful and racist  comments I read in daily articles within the online  news resources, not able to understand where these people come from, and how they’ve successfully been able to live in this world with so much bigotry and hatred in their lives. It just doesn’t make sense to me. RARR

That’s my rant for today, and I honestly don’t care if anyone disagrees with me. Maybe if you do, don’t tell me.

Stay blessed-

1 comment:

Emi said...

amen, brother