Mayor Bloomberg didn't tiptoe too much, but boy, Contessa Brewer really did.
"There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country. There are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."As opposed, of course, to the hip new bigotry against anyone not in a protected ethnic groups "clinging" to God and Guns and the Constitution. You know, the one the
I think there are a lot of people who like to pretend they are better than other people by pretending that there are a lot more people than there actually are that are "worse" than them.
I think there are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a different way ... you know, like perhaps believe in limited government, or come from certain sized towns ... small ones, or rural areas, and whose skin color tends toward the light end of the scale.
But unfortunately, they can't. Because as I told a friend of mine the other day, there are thousands of examples of Islamist-centric terrorism. And all they have is Timothy McVeigh to point to. Even they know that's worn a bit thin.
I have a Muslim co-worker whose teenage daughter once told her, "Mom, I know not all Muslims are terrorists, but it sure seems like most terrorists are Muslims".
Of course, to change this perception, Muslims could work hard to squelch this tendency among their ranks. That would be a better route than hoping white Christians would adopt it as a modus operandi. Or drawing strained moral equivalences between western culture and Islamic extremism.
Unrelated (or barely related -- regarding "Fundamental Transformation") Beck brought up something the other day that has crossed my mind before. Try this on your wife/girlfriend.
"Honey, you know I love you. I love you more than anything. That's why I want you to get a new hairstyle, completly change your wardrobe, like different food, read different books, talk with a different accent and go to finishing school. You start tomorrow."
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