**Please read this post (written by Emily) and then share it with whomever you can. – ABL**
On February 13, members of a faith-based charitable organization gathered in Yorba Linda, California to raise funds to support women’s shelters, help the homeless and combat hunger.
This same organization is active in interfaith outreach. One of its leaders offered the opening prayers at the recent inauguration of the governor of Illinois, and it will be holding its annual banquet in Chicago this weekend, the theme of which is “Fighting Fear, Teaching Tolerance.”
You can understand why, then, on February 13, a handful of elected officials — specifically: Yorba City councilwoman Deborah Pauly, US Congressman Ed Royce, and US Congressman Gary Miller — joined a group of a few hundred protesters (shouting such things as “Go back home!” and “USA!” and, for good measure: “Fuck you!”), in order to declare the faith-based philanthropic event “pure, unadulterated evil.”
Oh wait. Perhaps that’s actually utterly incomprehensible — nay: batshit crazy.
By now, of course, you’ve understood that — oh! It must have been Muslims! Because if it had been Christians or Jews or Hindus gathered to do social justice work, at this point in American history, there would have been no angry, spittle-flecked faces.
No, no, it must have been Muslims, because Muslims — men, women, little boys, little girls, all of them dressed in their finest, hair brushed, party shoes on little feet, come together to help those who cannot help themselves — are clearly, unequivocally, “evil.”
Natch.
What red-blooded American elected official would not, under such circumstances, declare her pride in her 19 year old son, a Marine, and suggest — I’m sorry, not suggest, but rather, say flat out — that there are “quite a few Marines” like her son who “will be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in Paradise” (to the delighted laughter of the crowd).
What group of self-declared “patriotic Americans” who announce that they “love our Constitution” wouldn’t yell at Americans of faith on their way to a social justice event: “One nation under God, not Allah!” (patriotic Americans can’t be expected to know that the word “Allah” is simply Arabic for “God,” like the Hebrew “Yahweh,” a word patriotic Americans often use in Christian rock ditties).
What patriotic Americans wouldn’t yell at these other Americans (still on their way to help battered women and the homeless and the hungry): “Your hands are bloody! Your money is bloody! Get out!”
Indeed, what sitting member of this nation’s legislative branch wouldn’t reach out to a group of patriotic Americans screaming (and I do mean screaming) curse words at children and parents on their way to a charity event in order to say to the screamers: “I am proud of you, I am proud of what you’re doing.”
It was, after all, Muslims.
What do they expect, what with their headscarves and their beards and their belief in one God and the imperative to do good and their American citizenship and their trust in this nation’s founding documents, including that one bit that talks about freedom of religion? How dare they think they can just walk on into some building in California and raise funds for those in need? How dare they think they can bring their children and expect their children to learn about a life of good deeds and holy behavior? How dare they think that their government representatives (local and national) might not suggest that they are ripe for killing — I mean: ripe for being sent by members of their own military to “an early meeting in Paradise”?
How dare they.
The simple truth of the matter is that I’m ashamed to share citizenship with those protesters, and yet more ashamed to know that Deborah Pauly, Ed Royce and Gary Miller have any power, of any kind, in the nation that is my home.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen these spit-flecked maws and the venom they spew. We saw them in 1943 when they joined Lt. Gen. John DeWitt in declaring that “we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map”; in 1951, they provided names of the innocent to Senator Joe McCarthy as he and the House Un-American Activities Committee destroyed American lives; in 1960, they stood on sidewalks howling “Nigger!” at six year old Ruby Bridges, as she crossed the color line to go to school; in 1979, they savagely assaulted Sikhs and Mexicans for looking like Iranians, and again in 2001, for looking like Arabs.
They are the worst that this country has to offer. They are the dross of our society, the black hearts and empty shells against which the Framers sought to protect us in our founding documents. They are ignorant, they are dangerous, they are a blight and a stain — and they are, whether we like it or not, us.
I might not want to call these unholy miscreants “American” — but American they are. They are American, they are human, and however much I would set walls between us, I can’t.
I cannot wish them away. I cannot impose holiness upon them. I cannot force them to take on the mantle of the American values they currently trample with such glee.
I can only confront them with the truth, push the ignorance into the smaller and yet smaller corners, and build on the certain knowledge that they will not win the day.
Today, Japanese-Americans serve in the Administration of a black President, and the name “McCarthy” is shorthand for a time universally recognized as one of the darkest in American history.
Today, Americans of good will, of all colors and stripes, are horrified by the events in Yorba Linda. Across the country, across the airwaves, on the internet, in homes and in conversation, we are raising a hue and a cry, declaring our loyalty to our Muslim brothers and sisters in solidarity and faith.
Our union is not yet perfect, and it will likely never be.
But as we face down the remains of centuries of bigotry and hate, and bring our better angels to bear against the underbelly of American society, we make the union better. Stronger. More perfect.
“We the people” means all the people — and if a few hundred ill-informed bigots and their spectacularly un-American elected officials don’t know that, then it’s up to us, Muslim and non-Muslim Americans of good will, to let them know.
This is a moment on which our children will look back, and boggle at what innocent people had to face. It’s a moment in which some will shine as heroes, and others will go down in ignominy. It’s a moment that will help define our nation and our future, and it’s in our hands to decide if we will act in support of the American Idea, or stand idly by.
This is it. There’s work to be done, and we’re the only ones who can do it.
*****************
The event I describe above can be seen in the following video. It’s infuriating and more than a little disturbing, but I urge you to watch it — there’s something to hearing the tenor of the hate, and seeing the dignity with which people under verbal assault go about their business, that clears the mind and sharpens the senses.
Click here to learn about some of the many, many responses of Muslims categorically rejecting terrorism; click here to hear the words of a Muslim 9/11 first responder; click here for a few ideas about how to respond to America’s current rash of Islamophobia.
[Please watch the video as Emily has urged you to do. You may be tempted, as I was, to turn it off halfway through. Don’t. You have to watch it in order to understand just how close to the brink of ruin we are as a country. I thought I would be enraged, but I ended up feeling empty, sad, and scared. I’ve never witnessed that sort of ferocious hate, directed at men, children, and women simply attempting raise funds to help the less fortunate. Only if you watch will you understand that we are fighting for the soul of our country. The pundits and media politicians stroke their imaginary beards and pontificate about “American exceptionalism,” all the while this sort of madness is going on a mere 45 miles from where I live. The Mayans weren’t kidding about 2012. It could make or break us. -ABLxx]
[cross-posted by Emily L. Hauser here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
aimai
Is there a website for the Islamic organization where we can post our good wishes and our support? I’d like to send them flowers and a letter of apology.
aimai
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Thank you so, so much for posting this here, too.
This is the stuff that I feel in my bones and in my blood, and it positively hurt my heart to see what those people were doing in Yorba Linda — but it was good, too, because once you see it, you can’t ignore or forget it. It’s Ruby Bridges all over again.
Except this time, a lot more of us who aren’t on the receiving end are positively horrified. And that’s a really good, encouraging thing, in my book.
I’m about to disappear into Shabbat land and won’t be able to keep up with/reply to comments until tomorrow night, but I’ll be back then, I promise.
I’m so grateful this is getting a broader audience. Thank you thank you thank you!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Oh, and also, too:
I just realized that the link in the last line goes to an older version of “here’s a few ideas of how to act”.
A newer — frankly more useful and to-the-point version — can be found here: http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/how-to-support-muslims/
gelfling545
I am so ashamed that I share a common citizenship with these people.
Hungry Joe
Okay, that would seem to qualify as Officially Scary. But it’s hard to tell what, if anything, it means. Is it the tip of a monstrous iceberg, or (to pursue the metaphor a little too far) just a handful of slush?
protected static
@aimai: http://icnarelief.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=120:icna-relief-fund-raising-in-yorba-linda-ca&catid=15:latest
asiangrrlMN
I had to force myself to watch it, and I had to force myself to watch it all the way through. I found the intolerance, hatred, fear, and ignorance to be deeply disturbing. It angered me, but it also saddened me. The fact that elected officials participated in this bullshit makes me livid.
There is one quote from a Muslim woman saying, “I was born in CA. Where should I go?” (Paraphrase). That really resonated with me as I was told to go home more than once when I was a kid.
This shit needs to be aired so we can see what the deliberate misinformation streaming from FOX and associates (including the MSM) foster and encourage.
It still makes me ill to think about it.
gwangung
They tried that with Japanese Americans in WWII. Screwed them out of billions of dollars of California land.
Maybe we oughta take that track and accuse them of naked greed. They wanna screw honest, hard working Americans however they can. Make them THINK about what they’re saying, put them on the defensive.
Mark S.
Jesus Christ that was extremely painful to sit watch. But it is libelous to say that the Tea Party is motivated by anything but the love of limited government and their anger about the deficit. They are certainly not a bunch of racist yahoos who are indistinguishable from the Klan.
Wile E. Quixote
These people are oxygen thieves. What annoys me most about these fucks is that they think that they’re the reason that America is so exceptional. Yeah right, like no other country in history has ever had a whole bunch of stupid, bigoted, ignorant, fear-filled shits in it’s populace.
Nick L
Seeing innocent Muslim families walk through crowds of screaming white
fascistsreal Murrikins reminds me of films from the desegregation of Southern schools in the Civil Rights Era.agrippa
The behavior of those people ‘protesting’ – more like throwing a temper tantrum – is andmissable
asiangrrlMN
@gwangung: Ooooh. I like the way you think. Let’s do it!
I was joking in a different thread that if the Chinese become the bogey-man in the near future, I’m going to have to resurrect the, “I’m ____, not Chinese” buttons, similar to the ones non-Japanese people wore during WWII. “I’m Taiwanese, not Chinese. Please don’t put me in a relocation camp and take away everything I own.” That’s not catchy enough for a bumper sticker unfortunately.
Sko Hayes
@asiangrrlMN: It’s because of Fox and people like Pamela Geller that people are like this.
The worst part of the whole video was watching elected officials stand up with the hate and the spittle.
I would be calling the California Republican Party and asking them if they endorse this behavior. If they do, now is a good time to start running the clips in ads.
Freaking California.
The Dangerman
About a month ago, I watched a City Council meeting online (it’s still available last time I checked) in Temecula, CA, regarding a Mosque there; the hate could best be described as unhinged. Unfortunately, that is the inevitable result of those “voices” in the media that say we have a Kenyan President.
These people will have to be effectively deprogrammed.
mzrad
Yuk. These folks need to get a fucking passport and cross the US boundaries to explore the wider world where there’s more muslims than christians. Jeezus.
YUK!
Sarah, Proud and Tall
We once had a Muslim family living next to us when we lived in Scranton, PA.
My husband, Keith, was investigating a particularly complex fraud matter where one of the local Kludds had been siphoning off money for months and giving it to a young black woman he had stashed in a Motel 6 somewhere on the outskirts of town. He ended up marrying her and having little brindle babies. The chaplain, that is, not my husband Keith.
Keith never touched another woman (which is not to mention his occasional stop offs at certain public toilets – a man has to have a hobby).
Anyway, when we were in Scranton there was a Muslim family next door. They were lovely. They were polite and friendly and they used to bring food to every bake sale (even if we usually had to throw it in the bin at the end because it was foreign muck and no one bought it). Their children were just the sweetest things ever, and I never saw any evidence that even one of them had been sacrificed to their heathen god.
It’s very odd how they could be so lovely, and most of their other co-religionists are bloodsucking, baby killing murders who crucified Jesus and crashed those planes into Disneyland.
It does make you think.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@aimai: Back just long enough to say this:
I heard today through the intertrons that this Muslim women’s shelter is really in need of some funding:
http://www.mnisaa.org/Get_Involved/Donate_Now.html?appver3=tYgT1GfNxRUldiimjHMvOZAL0USu1iGctePtnzuSJUXo-7YkZiNiYhc46uwjFenmums9tj3wI7okSf0MyMa8umtOp0c9HfuRvhtL60X5x7Q=&ver=3
It might be a good place to start.
Shabbat shalom, folks. Shalom, salaam to us all.
Mnemosyne
@Nick L:
To me, it’s yet more proof that “Muslim” has become the new word for “nigger,” and the same kind of people who turned out to scream at Ruby Bridges in 1960 are turning out today to scream at Muslims walking into a benefit.
The only difference between now and then is that it’s no longer socially acceptable to scream at random black people in the street, but it’s (marginally) acceptable to scream at random Muslim people in the street. The target shifts, but the assholery stays the same.
Mnemosyne
@Sko Hayes:
Don’t be fooled — California is the birthplace of the John Birch Society. There’s a liberal strain here, but there’s very conservative one, too, and always has been.
B W Smith
I was angered and saddened when I saw this video at Digby’s yesterday. I posted the video on my Facebook page. Many of my friends were saddened and outraged as well. Some decided to offer excuses for the protesters and immediately build straw men. Ironically, those who offered up excuses were the very same to see Christian persecution behind every statement or action. I am no longer amazed at the hatred I see around me. The protesters obviously lack something in their heart. These actions are building new hatred and hardened hearts every time they happen. Beautiful post, Emily.
Niall
I’m still amazed that the US media isn’t covering the upcoming Homeland Security Committee hearing on “radicalized Muslims” more. I’m also surprised they aren’t covering the committee chair Peter King’s interesting past with respect to terrorists who aren’t Muslim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_T._King#Support_for_the_IRA
No One of Consequence
Saddening. A group gathering together to raise money and help the less fortunate amongst us. Scorned, ridiculed, accosted as they go about trying to be good, decent, civil *human beings*.
My saddest thoughts struck me as the mothers lead their children through that gauntlet of intolerance and ignorance. Are we such a little people, we Americans, that we don’t know what to do with ourselves if we have not an enemy to rail against. To revile. To persecute.
Where is the Greatness of our Country? Where the Shining City on the Hill?
We have met the enemy. And He is Us. No doubt about it after watching this video.
None at all.
May God (in all Her Innumerable Names) have Mercy on our Souls. Because clearly, we won’t have any Mercy on Each Other.
Hug your loved ones. Tell them you love them. And try to be Better People. We have a lot of work to do in order to balance out this Bullshit.
Fucking mouthbreathers.
– No One of Consequence
Shadow's Mom
I was horrified when I watched this video. I called my reps in California today to express my wish that they publicly denounce such behavior, generally, but with particular specificity for elected public servants. Sharing as broadly as I can.
dmsilev
Sad, but so very very true.
As noted upthread, this is exactly the same sort of mob that gathered again and again during the era of desegregation. Only real difference is that the local police set up fences to keep the protesters away from the people trying to live their lives.
dms
abo gato
I put this on my facebook page yesterday too and what I said there I really mean….which is what scares and saddens me the most is that the people who did this are proud of themselves for behaving this way.
What can this possibly mean for the future of us as a people and a country? It can only be bad, there is nothing good that can come from groups behaving in this manner.
General Stuck
Hate is worldwide. We have set higher standard for ourselves, which is good thing. And these assholes didn’t get that memo, AKA – The US Constitution
Nutella
Aaarrghh – Looking at Emily’s page on how to support Muslims, it’s got a Google ad that says this:
America At Risk New Movie
We are losing the war against radical Islamists. View the Trailer
http://www.AmericaAtRisk.com
Brought to you by Newt and wife#3.
Mary G
I can’t watch it today. I know I should, but I can’t. I wish there was some way to have known that this would break out; I would love to have been able to stand with the good people (Muslims) to represent the sane side of Orange County. It’s heartbreaking.
Mary G
And the banner ad at the bottom of my screen says “Is Obama Muslim?” Buy our book to find out. Ugh.
Ecks
I feel nautious.
But the people shouting… the scary thing is I get them. They’ve been told, over and over, that Muslim is a religion of women-hating freedom-hating terrorism, and they believe it. We see normal citizens showing up to do a good thing and being harassed, these guys are seeing a bunch of crazed killers walking brazenly through the streets. If you believed what they did you’d probably do something similar.
Lies are poisoning this country, too many minds at a time.
These people only truly share blame for the lies if they choose to believe them because they are comforting, or provide a nice warm simmer of rage that adds drama to an otherwise boring life. I hope this is not true of most of them, that they are just genuinely misinformed… but I’m not entirely hopeful.
gene108
@asiangrrlMN:
I think all the right leaning voters, who would’ve been angered by this, stopped voting Republican during the Bush, Jr. Administration. It won’t have much impact in conservative circles.
There’s a legion of ditto heads, who will rally in support of the protesters. We have a certain percentage of the population, which responds well to fascism. They like to use government power against “them” to protect “us”, even if it means expanding governments powers beyond what’s in the 4th Amendment. After all, “they” need to be cracked down on.
There’s an insane amount of cognitive dissonance in modern conservatism. They “love” the Constitution, but love increasing government’s police powers, so “they” get what they have coming to “them”. They are all for jumping into wars, even though only Congress can declare war. Yet Congress has been punting on declaring war and has been handing the authority over to the President for the last 70 years; a very un-Constitutional way to do their jobs.
Litlebritdifrnt
These people are despicable human beings. I watched, painful as it was, and dispaired for the state of this Country. I grew up with muslims, sihks, buddists, and hindus, it never once occurred to me that they were “evil” or a threat to me. I have been a Pagan since I was about 14. I guess I now have to worry that I am going to be burned at the fucking stake.
These people are about one slur short of building a ducking stool, and I am getting nervous.
rikyrah
THESE fuckers are the most unpatriotic, unChristian pack of maggots this country has produced in a long time.
just loathe them.
Litlebritdifrnt
ETA – How ironic would it be if I have to flee to England to escape religious persecution in this country?
Triassic Sands
Looks like Reverend Phelps has some new recruits.
burnspbesq
Ed Royce is my Congresscritter. Compared to many of my neighbors, he is the voice of moderation and reason. I kid you not.
schrodinger's cat
SPT sounds like a female version of BOB
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@schrodinger’s cat:
What is a “BOB”?
We had a Chinese man called Bob who used to clean our house, but I’m sure that’s not who you are talking about.
Actually, his name wasn’t Bob, but that’s what we called him.
Actually, that’s what I called him. My husband Keith used to call him “that Communist bastard”, which I think was unfair because, as I used to tell Keith, he was a Nationalist bastard, actually.
PaulW
i agree with Emily’s sentiments. and I would ask that we get our Congress representatives to issue ethics charges on the two Congresspersons who promoted such racism.
MeDrewNotYou
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: 10/10
You, sir or madam, are an expert. It’s rare to see such high quality nowadays. Bravo.
burnspbesq
@PaulW:
Here’s a link to the page on the House Ethics Committee website that contains the relevant rules. Feel free to peruse at your leisure and try to find some rule that was violated.
http://ethics.house.gov/Pubs/Default.aspx
Wrong answer. Throwing money into a Quixotic effort to beat these guys is also the wrong answer. They’re impregnable. Send your money to Democrats in contested races. The only way to beat these clowns is to put them back in the minority.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@MeDrewNotYou:
You are very kind, even if I have no idea what you are talking about.
I’m glad that you know what your name is, by the way. What do you do if you come across another person called Drew? Does it cause arguments?
“MeDrewNotYou!”
“No, MeDrewNotYou!”
“No, MeDrewNotYou!”
and so on ad infinitum.
MeDrewNotYou
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: I kill them. There can be only one!
Phoebe
They’re screaming at families with little kids. They’re unhinged. I think I read in Nixonland [or, I dunno, somewhere] that it was the footage of firehoses being turned onto peaceful protesters, and people setting dogs on children, etc. that freaked out semi-sane America into passing the Civil Rights Act and everything else before the shit hit the fan in 66. I hope this video gets a lot of play, I guess is what I’m saying. I shoved it up on the face book.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@MeDrewNotYou:
I saw that movie. Are you Christopher Lambert?
MeDrewNotYou
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Confession time. I’ve never seen Highlander, I just know that one line.
As to the OP: I know these people have always been around, but it seems like the have power and respectability (not exactly, maybe more of a lack of scorn?) that previous generations of racists/bigots didn’t. Instead of somewhat subtle dog whistles, you have an entire party shouting out their bigotry. My only hope is the demographic time bomb saves us from anything worse than stuff like this. Hopefully the GOP doesn’t strip the vote from everyone but white male Christians.
Anyone with experience of the Civil Rights era or even WW2 internment care to share their personal comparisons?
opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland
@Mnemosyne: It’s the area behind the Orange County. I lived there for 10 years. The crazy is there, just below the surface. The is the place that elected John (fucking) Schmitz to the House of Representatives.
Yorba Linda… wasn’t that the town where one of the idiot candidates circulated a picture of a n….r, pardon me, an African American eating a watermelon as a joke? The lone AfAm on the city council or whatever it was took exception but forgave the white woman because they were both Republicans. I wanted to gag.
What the Jesus H. Christ is fucking wrong with people?
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, I watched it, the whole fucking thing. The only thing that didn’t make me sick during it was watching a number of my fellow citizens walk through that wall of hate with dignity and stoicism on their way to raise money for a charity.
KG
I’m from Yorba Linda, I went to law school with Karen Lugo whose quote is on the video. I know a few people who actually went to the protest. I really have no words. Some of the people I’ve talked to, say that the speakers have said terrible things and supported terrorists or the destruction of Israel. But seeing that video, it saddens me, the people I know that went to that protest, I couldn’t imagine them chanting the slogans that were shouted there.
KithKanan
Yorba Linda is home of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (his birthplace and grave site). His hatred and paranoia had to come from, and go to, somewhere — with my apologies to the sane people who live there.
Fax Paladin
@MeDrewNotYou: The demographic time bomb is precisely what’s driving Republicans to these depths of insanity. Having treated these folks like crap and thus driven them more to the Democrats, the GOP now has to go all in and demonize them absolutely so the rest of America won’t quibble when they’re disenfranchised.
And I said nothing, for I wasn’t a Muslim…
Ron
@gelfling545: I had the same reaction. (I posted the YouTube link on my facebook page with the comment: “I’m embarrassed to think of these protesters as fellow Americans.”
kentropic
This makes me heartsick: best wishes for peace and continued strength to all the families with the courage to face down the protestors’ mindless hatred, in an effort to help their neediest neighbors.
Zuzu's Petals
@KG:
So they should be able to provide you with factual examples, with full quotes. I know I’d ask.
lucslawyer
I like your Christ…I don’t like your christians….M. Gandhi
Ash Can
Thank you so much, Emily, for writing this, and thank you so much, ABL, for cross-posting it here. And thanks to everyone for doing what they can to further publicize this. All Americans who have even the least bit of decency need to know about this.
Angry Black Lady
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: stellar.
Dave
It’s not California as a whole. In the last election, not a single Republican won a statewide office.
On the other hand, there are many enclaves of bat-shit crazy white folk-mostly in southern California.
c u n d gulag
I don’t like to sound or be angry, but if those elected officials were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on ’em to put it out.
Chris
“I’ve never witnessed that sort of ferocious hate, directed at men, children, and women simply attempting raise funds to help the less fortunate.”
Well, couple that with the Wisconsin stuff in another post inspiring repeated citations of Jay Gould’s line about being “able to hire half the working class to kill the other half” (but wouldn’t that drive up the price labor can demand? /stops expecting conservative economic arguments to make sense), and actually, this shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Sad, yes. Surprising, no.
And yes, it’s like we’re deliberately going backwards in time. That hurts, too.
Chris
Video was disgusting, but I didn’t hear a single thing on it that I hadn’t already read at PajamasMedia, RedState and the like. Used to be you had Bush and McCain pointing out that hey, we’re not at war with a religion. Not anymore: they pulled out all the stops since 2008, and I seriously doubt if any of their presential candidates in decades will ever go even that far again.
Prayers and wishes go out to the American Muslim community that has to live with this hate every day.
Chris
Sadly, “McCarthy was right!” is a shibboleth for any true conservative. And even the internment of Japanese Americans is considered perfectly decent action by many of them (Michelle Malkin comes to mind).
Chris
@Wile E. Quixote:
This.
Chris
@Hungry Joe:
It’s the tip of “an” iceberg: said iceberg = the people in this country who would gleefully cheer if all Muslims were shipped out of the country, herded into camps or worse.
Fortunately, 1) the law still protects Muslims, 2) most people still aren’t on the side of the racists (though the incessant stream of drumbeat rhetoric has radicalized a lot of people in the last decade), and 3) unlike the Ku Klux Klan, most of those guys are too cowardly and lazy to actually go vigilante, get their own hands dirty and risk the consequences, which is the Muslims’ good fortune.
(You’re talking about people whose idea of a sit-in is to pull over in an air-conditioned SUV on the side of the highway and tweet for an hour “if it won’t take up much of your time,” after all).
Disraeli
And so these protesters bring alive the words of the bard
“A tale, told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing”
except the hateful emptiness inside a noisy, ignorant and fearful few. I find it appalling that 2 members of congress would think it appropriate to ally themselves with these protesters.
Chris
@Ecks:
If I believed what they believed, it would be because I was a backwards-ass PJTV-inebriated fuck who didn’t know shit from peanut butter and couldn’t be arsed to learn it.
Sure I can empathize with them: I think Huckabee’s brand of evangelical Christianity hates women and freedom and at least partly (abortion clinics) breeds terrorism. But you don’t see me in front of evangelical churches and buildings carrying protest signs and telling them their God isn’t welcome here and they should “go home.” You don’t see my gathering hate mobs to scream at families with small children at “help the poor” fundraisers. You sure as hell don’t see me on a podium bragging about how I know somebody who’d be happy to kill them, or in the audience laughing my head off when the speaker says that.
You have a sick, diseased mind if you’re okay with any of that, regardless of whether you’re doing it to Muslims, evangelicals or anyone else. No, I don’t “get them,” and there’s nothing to “get.”
Elton in Baltimore
Last Tuesday the Supreme Court issued an opinion in re the Westboro Baptist Church’s right to be flaming assholes at military funerals, parading about carrying vicious signs and hurling hateful epithets at the dead soldier’s mourners.
The Court ruled 8-1 that these morons have a First Amendment right to spit their venom, no matter how vitriolic.
The opinion was greeted with widespread dismay here in Maryland, where the late soldier grew up. Cries of “Impeach the Supreme Court!” filled the air, along with calls for more drastic action. (Justice Alito dissented, and was immediately elevated to messiah status.)
Imagine now that the SCOTUS’s decision had applied to this case of Muslim hatred.
My guess is Maryland’s — and the country’s — reaction would be directly opposite. Fox News might even produce a “Guardians of Democracy!” mini-series praising the “courageous” Supreme Court.
Democracy is a messy thing.
dwgregory
Fascism. No other word.
Chet
“But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen these spit-flecked maws and the venom they spew. We saw them in 1943 when they joined Lt. Gen. John DeWitt in declaring that “we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map”; in 1951, they provided names of the innocent to Senator Joe McCarthy as he and the House Un-American Activities Committee destroyed American lives; in 1960, they stood on sidewalks howling “Nigger!” at six year old Ruby Bridges, as she crossed the color line to go to school; in 1979, they savagely assaulted Sikhs and Mexicans for looking like Iranians, and again in 2001, for looking like Arabs.”
Don’t forget in 1982, when they beat a Chinese-American to death with a baseball bat for looking Japanese. That one happened in my neck of the woods, and still sickens me to think of.
Filam
There is a silver lining to this video, although it’s hard to see. For me, I see hardworking, patriotic Americans (Muslims), contributing to society through charity, helping their fellow humans, trying to live their lives by walking past and trying to ignore the hate spewing, ignorant, (mostly white) racists. That is America’s present and future right there; brown, black, white, of all religions, trying to walk forward and ignore the ignorant mouth breathers forever relegated to the sidelines spewing invective.
Sam Dobermann
This needs to be reported to the USDOJ, Civil Rights division. They have been prosecuting hate crimes and civil rights violations. This ugliness is not a crime —unless they blocked the way. But it is a predicate if anything happens; vandalism, attacks on persons.
Actually, it might amount to an assault…
I can’t look; I have seen it too often before. Last month was Black history month and PBS goes all out running documentaries that are excruciatingly well done. They all use lots of newsreel footage and frequently interview people who were there — when they were younger of course.
Coming soon: Frontline has done one called Freedom Riders that is supposed to be simply amazing. Do watch.
Tell them that they will look just as ugly in 40 years when they show their hideous behavior in a documentary on ugly haters of 2011.
Sam Dobermann
This needs to be reported to the USDOJ, Civil Rights division. They have been prosecuting hate crimes and civil rights violations. This ugliness is not a crime —unless they blocked the way. But it is a predicate if anything happens; vandalism, attacks on persons.
Actually, it might amount to an assault…
I can’t look; I have seen it too often before. Last month was Black history month and PBS goes all out running documentaries that are excruciatingly well done. They all use lots of newsreel footage and frequently interview people who were there — when they were younger of course.
Coming soon: Frontline has done one called Freedom Riders that is supposed to be simply amazing. Do watch.
Tell them that they will look just as ugly in 40 years when they show their hideous behavior in a documentary on ugly haters of 2011.