GOD Bless America?

I have been looking into the debate going on about the mosque (or more informatively; Community Center) that is to be erected roughly two blocks away from ground zero. To be fair, I'll start with the news debates first. Both sides have fairly good arguments, but both sides are skewing the facts so that they sound one hundred percent right. This is normal in these situations. What I found entertaining was a news segment where they had a mother of a woman who died on 9/11 (for the Community Center) vs. the opinions of a man of Islamic heritage (against the Community Center). Wow. With all of the Americans arguing this point how could they ever have found two people like this to show on the news?! I am astounded and now I just don't know even more how to make up my own mind on this subject!! Come on. There are plenty of victims' families who don't see this as a threat to our nation or a degradation to their deceased loved ones just as there are plenty of people from Islamic background who see this as being unfair to those who still suffer hurt from the falling of the Twin Towers.

On a facebook thread I read there were a few comments that caught my attention. Some were ridiculous, some I agreed with, and some just pissed me off. Here are my comments on a few of them.

(This is the status to start with)
I am well aware how liberal I am and how a lot of people differ from me (family included) and that's fine. That being said, one thing I cannot handle is the radical Islam debate going on right now. Someone just emailed me an article saying we should force all moderate Muslims and imams to sign a declaration of their be...liefs of nonviolence and all this other stuff and hang it on the walls of their Mosque.



Comment: dont like the political bs.. but I love your pics.

Whats your schedule like and rate for a family session>?

Okay, obviously all this says is, "I don't actually have an opinion but I wanted to sound smart anyway and ended up looking like a complete idiot in the process."



Comment: yeah i was reading the newspaper yesterday and there was an article about a non-issue blown out of proportion where someone wants to build a mosque in new york. the racist christian Right is all pissed because obama basically said "this is ...america, people can build their worship centers for any religion wherever zoning regulations allow" so they of course say he's a muslim sympathizer, hates white people and christians are always under attack bla bla bla... boo hoo. fuckin cry babies. i'm more libertarian or something but the mainstream Right just pisses me off they are so simple minded and hateful

Okay, kind of agree, but to be fair that's not all Obama said. He also said something along the lines of 'the feelings of those who still have to suffer the grief of 9/11 should be taken into consideration but according to the first amendment they have every right to build near this site.' (side note, this is just my loose paraphrase)



Comment: There are always going to be fringe opinions...

Um, yes there will....



Comment: signing a piece of paper won't do anything anyway. its just mass appeasement. little stupid formalities to make scared sheep feel better. if you're so messed up that you would strap bombs to your chest to kill yourself and innocent people, i don't think you would have second thoughts about signing some BS declaration.

Whoa. We're not talking about the Taliban sir, or P.O.S. as I like to call you. These are American citizens who are trying to exercise their right to freedom of religion. And again, it's a Community Center not a Mosque if anyone is still confused.



Comment: Everyone who argues we should limit the rights of Muslims instantly shows an allegiance to an authoritarian impulse that is more in line with the thinking in the authoritarian Islamic societies these folks purport to be against than with th...e spirit of freedom we are supposed to be enjoying in America.

Not that we've ever lived up to the ideal of freedom in this country, but it is still pretty sick to see and realize how large this authoritarian impulse is here.

A bit Extreme, but also funny in an ironic-it's-kinda-true sorta way.



There were many, many more comments on this status that go along the same lines as well as different ones. These generally just show me the ignorance of the general population when it comes to having opinions about matters such as these. Roughly under seventy percent of the population is supposed to be against the building of this Community Center (repeat it after me one more time; Community Center). Who are these people and how much research have they done on the subject? How the hell did they even get these statistics. Okay, I took a stats course and I know how they got the statistics but these can be easily skewed in the direction that is desired.

I say no matter what the opinion, the Constitution stands. This group of people have a legal right to build a Community Center on their own property just as all of those uneducated morons out there have a right to have an opinion on it.

P.S: Did you see what I did with the choosing of the comments I talked about? Yep, skewed in the favor of my opinion to make people disagreeing with me seem like bigoted idiots.