I just heard in the news that 18% of Americans think President Obama is of the Muslim faith, never mind the flack he had with Reverend Jeremiah Wright (his Chicago minister). Today, only 34% think he is Christian. Good grief!
Good grief! Good grief! I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that our country is falling behind in education. I used to be surprised when Jay Leno would interview people on the streets who thought Abraham Lincoln was the president during the American Revolution. We are becoming a nation getting our information from talk radio or Christian Tea Party type leaders who are giving out a lot of misinformation.
It's scary, very scary. Sarah Palin scares me.
You've got people who are condemning President Obama for correctly stating that our Constitution protects our religious freedom.... not the Christian religion, not the Muslim religion, not the Buddhist religion, but ALL religion. Our country is great because we are free to worship as we feel is right for us.
And yet 33% of Americans do not think Muslims have a Constitutional right to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.
There was a time, not so long ago that Japanese Americans were all rounded up and put into Interment camps. Most of them lost their livelihood and their properties during their internment. All this because once Japan invaded, no one of Japanese ancestry could be trusted. Unfortunately, it wasn't just the Japanese Americans that suffered, but many Asian Americans because well... what can I say? Many Caucasians think we all look alike.
America needs to really improve our educational system and stress tolerance and understanding or we will end up very much possessing the traits of the people we've come to hate and fear. Many of those people who we call our enemy look at us with that same hate and fear.
Sorry for the sad Friday post.
I'm really worried.
Good grief! Good grief! I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that our country is falling behind in education. I used to be surprised when Jay Leno would interview people on the streets who thought Abraham Lincoln was the president during the American Revolution. We are becoming a nation getting our information from talk radio or Christian Tea Party type leaders who are giving out a lot of misinformation.
It's scary, very scary. Sarah Palin scares me.
You've got people who are condemning President Obama for correctly stating that our Constitution protects our religious freedom.... not the Christian religion, not the Muslim religion, not the Buddhist religion, but ALL religion. Our country is great because we are free to worship as we feel is right for us.
And yet 33% of Americans do not think Muslims have a Constitutional right to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.
There was a time, not so long ago that Japanese Americans were all rounded up and put into Interment camps. Most of them lost their livelihood and their properties during their internment. All this because once Japan invaded, no one of Japanese ancestry could be trusted. Unfortunately, it wasn't just the Japanese Americans that suffered, but many Asian Americans because well... what can I say? Many Caucasians think we all look alike.
America needs to really improve our educational system and stress tolerance and understanding or we will end up very much possessing the traits of the people we've come to hate and fear. Many of those people who we call our enemy look at us with that same hate and fear.
Sorry for the sad Friday post.
I'm really worried.
BRAVO, Kay!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWell reasoned
Well said
Well, that's what I expect from you :)
Scary times may wake people,
there are lots of good folks around..."we must all hang together" as Franklin said.
Warm Aloha from Waikiki :)
Comfort Spiral
Thank goodness for a voice of sense! I was beginning to think all you folks over the pond had lost your marbles - well said, Kay :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, I echo the above 2 sentiments! Bravo, Kay.
ReplyDeleteI'm so gald you broached this topic. I have been stewing on it now for quite a while. Another stat - 65% or more of Americans don't think that Islamic center should should be built in New York, NEAR the site of the former World Trade Center. They are believing the fear mongering about a super mosque being built on ground zero by a terrorist sympathizer!
ReplyDeleteThis is just another example of people choosing ignorance over knowledge, fiction over fact, fear over hope, divisiveness over commonality. It's what I call willful ignorance.
We do need to educate our citicens better, but how, when they choose not to believe the truth?
I do grant that there are a few survivors of the victims of 9/11 who have never found remains of their loved one and see this site as a final resting place. But there will be a monument for that. The proposed Islamic center will not even be in sight. And innocent Moslems died there too.
I am also worried that the fear mongering of the few who have a broad public voice through media will continue to make our country a more dangerous place to live. The threat is from within as much as from afar.
You have every right and reason to be feeling this way, Kay. It IS scary.
ReplyDeleteIn Chicago, my best friend all through 4-12th grade, her older sister was born in one of the internment camps you speak of. But the kids of the family were forbidden to tell this to anyone, "because of the shame." The shame??? We, the white classmates whose parents' generation had put the Japanese Americans into camps, we should have been ashamed. But who even knew about it back then. They sure didn't teach us in public school history classes.
We have all seen to many examples of how mass hysteria can grip a nation.
Like your people, we Jews have been behind barbed wire. Not many Americans can imagine how that changes one's outlook.
Listen, for a little laugh after all this, go read a good satire. At http://tzvee.blogspot.com/, Tzvee's Talmudic Blog, today's post is "Is Barack Obama Jewish?"
Dina: I just checked out Tzvee's Talmudic Blog. LOL Love it! LOVED it! I needed a laugh. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when I think we have come a long way and at other times not at all. Ignorance and prejudice has reared its ugly head throughout history. It starts with the way we teach our children. May there be more of us who teach our little ones tolerance and kindness and acceptance, and may it grow in number until there is no more hate. Thanks for this post dear Kay.
ReplyDeleteAn English Girl Rambles
The history of this world is about religious and family intolerance-jealousy and hatreds. It will continue, all we can do is focus on our own views and actions. It is scary.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of following the religion of choice is one of the most essential part of a democracy.While we follow ours we must learn to respect other religions too.Humanity is the core message of all the religions existing in this world.Thought provoking post.
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend !
Sorry I'm late getting here because this is such a fantastic post and I so totally agree with everything you've said! I hate to see what is happening in our country today. And, yes, Sarah Palin scares me silly, too! I'm appalled by the things I read and see and hear. It is indeed scary! Thank you for writing this, Kay! You're the best!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
You are right there is freedom of religion in our country too, and yet Mr Wilders wants to abolish one relion: the Islam! Today Islam tomorrow the Jewish religion. And so we have Nazism back. You are right to be scared, but we and you have to be alert. Thank you so much about what you wrote about our war memorial. After the war I met several Japanese on my travels but also at a peace conference for women. I found the women I met there very kind and I heard how they suffered. I know that they also suffered in the States during the war. Hatred is the worst thing to deal with. Thanks again for this post about your very wise president. The best the USA has had since a long time. We love the guy!
ReplyDeleteAmen!!!! Isn't your second photo the religious center at Great Lakes Naval Training Center? My daughter showed it to me when I attended her graduation from basic?
ReplyDeleteShe told me that they were encouraged to practice their religious traditions. It made me proud to be an American.
If you're interested in the interment camps, I recommend an autobiography by a local psychologist, Monica Itoi Sone, called Nisei Daughter. You can get it at Amazon. It's a fascinating read of what happened to many Japanese during WWII. I count it as one of the darkest chapters of our history.
Obama is JEWISH! The Irish claim that he is Irish, his name is O'Bama. The Dutch claim that he is Frisian, for his family name ends in "-ma". So I think he is an Irish Jewish Frisian! Therefore we Dutch love this guy! That must be the best of everything!! ;)
ReplyDeleteit's a highly sensitive issue especially for New Yorkers. The so-called mosque itself is a 7-story cultural center with everything in there but a bowling alley. Only the top two floors are devoted to religious activities. Relevant that you should mention the Japanese internment in the same post which probably spared the Muslims from being rounded up themselves. Ironically, the World Trade Center was designed by a Japanese-American architect only to have 19 Muslim hijackers destroy what musta represented the crowning achievement of the Japanese-Americans who grew up on the mainland US.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Kay. I agree completely. At the moment, though, Obama's critics have moved their focus of criticism away from his "being Muslim" to his vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. And once he's back from vacation, they'll find something new to criticize him about. They must be just about wearing themselves out looking for things to dislike about the guy, when their energies could be better spent supporting efforts to clean up the Gulf oil spill, improve education, etc. Sarah Palin scares me, too. I just don't get what some find appealing in her
ReplyDeleteYou will never stamp out prejudice no matter how we try. President Obama is of Muslim faith. You are right about our educational system, we don't teach our children the right stuff, and yes Sarah Palin scares me also. In our state of Michigan alone we have the lottery to support the schools, yet we have one school after another closing, so where is all the money going. Thank you for taking the time to post a comment, have a nice weekend.
ReplyDeleteKay: No, the photo is not from Great Lakes Naval Training Base. Gosh... I didn't even know they had a mosque. It's supposed to be the Great Mosque of Kairouan, built in 670 and the oldest mosque in the western Islamic world in Tunisia.
ReplyDeleteMargaret: Actually, no, President Obama is a Christian although I'd love it if he were Buddhist, too.
ReplyDeleteI know Billy Graham's son, Franklin said, "He was born a Muslim and the seed is passed through the father," but please...
Do people seriously believe that you cannot have a religion different from your parents; that your religion is actually genetic?
As I said before, "We need to educate people."
Kay,
ReplyDeleteI am not going to comment on your solar blog since I think that Shane already responded about the reason for the price difference for our proposal, but I read this blog and felt moved to say something.
Mainly, THANK YOU! You echoed my sentiments almost exactly.
I am SHOCKED, amazed, angered and saddened on a daily basis when I hear about the gross ignorance of so many of our citizens. In a country that was founded for/on religious freedom, I am flabbergasted by what I hear on the news. It's bad enough that the general public would try to revoke religious freedom, (although I guess we can chalk that up partly to poor education,) but I am horrified to hear educated adults(especially those in politics or influential positions) speak out against our founding principals/constitution! Speaking (half) figuratively, we should intern them all for a while and see if that wakes them up.
Ignorance and fear are used to control the masses and it scares the crap out of me. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised after 8 years of a president and vice president who we unaccountably let walk all over our constitution and lead us through fear mongering.
We absolutely need to revive education in this country (my praises to you for being a teacher who obviously cares!)
Education is the key to fixing all of the problems. Not just ours, but the world's. If you haven't read it yet, you really need to get a copy of THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson. It is a fantastic read.(and Naomi Klien's THE END OF AMERICA)
As for Sarah Palin, she doesn't scare me so much (she's more of a source of entertainment,) what scares me is that she has a following that actually puts stock in what comes out of her horribly ignorant head! The thought of McCain/Palin running this country is enough to make me consider moving to Canada!
Hopefully, as one of your bloggers said, all of this flagrant ignorance and hate will wake up a sleeping "cell" of educated citizens and get this country back on track. Sorry 'bout the rant, hope I haven't scared you too.
Hopeful,
Julian
And please, somebody just shoot Rush Limbaugh(just kidding!)
Kay, I hope this post doesn't offend you because it isn't meant to but I would like to offer another side to part of your post. I agree there should be freedom of religion-that is what this country fought for so long ago! I really don't like prejudice at all and I think we have made some strides with regard to that but we need to make alot more positive ones! But this is someone who grew up and lived not too far from NYC when 9/11 happened. My husband was suppose to be in the WT Tower for a breakfast and got delayed on the train. I am not against Moslems and I am certainly not again a mosque being built but just think about this for a moment. There are so many other places in NYC that this mosque could be built. There is are 3 mosques not very far from ground zero. I feel and this is just my opinion that building this mosque where such a horrific, horrendous thing happened and so many people lost their lives would be like putting up a Hitler Memorial praising him in front of a concentration camp. This is just a thought to the flip side of the argument. Most people aren't prejudice against Moslems they just don't think it is in good taste to put something that represents a sect that hurt so many lives near ground zero.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting on this subject. I think Linda Reeder's comment is closest to my thinking, but actually I like some of Sherri's thinking as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, they certainly have the right to build the mosque, but should they? I would hope that no religion would build on the site, none, no church, synagogue, nor mosque. I am a strong believer in separation of church and state and regardless of what religion builds on the site it's too close for comfort for me. I want no religious group to be able to capitalize on that location, none.
Kay: Thank you for all your comments, everybody. I certainly understand the feeling that some people might feel that it isn't in good taste to have a mosque of the same religion of the terrorists who committed the atrocity close to the Twin Towers. I have to admit that my first inclination was that it didn't sound like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if the same crime was committed by a renegade Christian group, would you be offended if a Christian church were built near the site? There's a lot to think about, but discussion and understanding of the situation is always a good thing, I believe.
Art feels even more strongly that it is the terrorists who should be condemned, not the religion. Therefore all Muslims should not be deprived of their religious rights because of the actions of some others of their same faith who chose to act with such evil.
Julian: How sweet of you to write! As a matter of fact, my son, Jon just sent me Three Cups of Tea and it's sitting on my desk right here. You are a fabulous commenter!
ReplyDeleteAmen to that Kay, and well done for being brave enough to post this. I feel the exact same way as you do, but my husband does not! It maybe because my first husband was a muslim and so I really understand that radical islamists could not be further from most muslims mindset. We all need to practice more tolerance otherwise there is no hope for the world.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of ignorance around today..even with education, some people would still reject it..sad...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Kay. Thank you for writing this post. It was great to read all the commenters thoughts as well. We are so very lucky to have the freedoms we do, like being able to blog about what we want! Your post was truly thought provoking for me.
ReplyDeleteI see religion as being chapters of the same Book. Knowledge from One Source, revealed progressively as humanity, the students, were able to grasp the concepts and put them into practice.
ReplyDeleteAnd religion is the cause of unity and the wellbeing of humanity. Anything else is an aberration and should not be called religion.