Soapbox

     I am so discouraged by the misplaced- and often blatantly false- outrage over the proposal to build what is being (wrongly) called the Ground Zero Mosque. The Cordoba House Mosque and community center would replace a similar, smaller facility that has been in lower Manhattan for some years. It would also be about 2 blocks from  "Ground Zero"… but apparently this whole area is hallowed ground when the wrong people try to go there.

    The politicians and pundits (and assorted other hate pimps and idiots) are taking time out from their socialist witch-hunt and their campaign to dismantle the 14 amendment to launch a mission to convince the average American in Peoria that it will somehow adversely affect their life if Cordoba House is built.
    It's like spitting on the graves of the sacred dead of 9-11 victims!!

    Only it's not. At all. And by the way, where's your ginned-up outrage over the Muslim prayers being said daily at the Pentagon?

    Sara Palin tweets that the mosque "stabs at the hearts" of America. Newt Gingrich says that the president,  who said that people technically have a right to build a house of worship where they choose in the United States of America, is "pandering to radical Islam."  Which is interesting, because you can hardly get less radical than the theology of this mosque or the members' wish to build a larger building… but  pandering is certainly something Newt knows well.

    And I keep reading statements like "They should build their mosque somewhere else, somewhere that it won't bother us. We have a right to object: after all, Muslims killed those people in the twin towers!!!"

    Yeah. You know what? Men killed those people, too. Shall we declare ground zero a "ladies only" zone? No men's bathrooms near Ground Zero! How dare you guys PISS on our hallowed memories??!!!
That makes about as much sense.

    And then there's the old "But why do they have to build it right there?? Couldn't they just show a little consideration for our feelings and go somewhere else"
    So… during desegregation, do you think those black kids should have shown a little consideration for the angry white people and stayed away from that high school in Little Rock? I mean, it's not like there weren't other schools they could have gone to, right? Just because you have the legal right to do something doesn't mean it's the thoughtful thing to do.
   I suppose they could build somewhere else- but why do you want them to?  Muslims have been quietly attending one of the two mosques in the area for years without anybody's sensibilities being harmed- what has changed?  It's not like somebody woke up one day and said "Hmmm…where can we build a mosque that will piss off the most Christians?" They just want to keep doing the same thing in a bigger facility.

   What I think they really feel- but won't yet say- is "keep ground zero for the real Americans." Because as with this 14th amendment garbage and all the "sanctity of marriage" intolerance, it really comes down to  that us verses them paradigm.
"They" should have a little more respect for "Us"!

    Thing is, Muslim americans ARE us, just like gay Americans are us, and hispanic Americans are us and athiests, and  Chinese Americans and Mormons and handicapped people are us.
   The Muslim community in Manhattan shouldn't have to ask permission to live their regular lives from people who treat them… well,  like "them".  Last time I checked, there wasn't a religion test for citizenship (though some congressman from Texas will probably propose one next week!)
    And don't forget there were a number of Muslims killed on 9/11 too. If that doesn't make them part of "us", I don't know what does!
    Look,  I'm sorry about your 9/11 pain, all you people who don't actually know anyone who was killed there and yet are still feeling stabbed almost 10 years later. Has it occurred to you that some of the folks that attend this mosque might have lost friends and family there and have a little pain of their own?? Or does their pain not matter cause they're- you know, Muslim?

    If you know anything about the Imam of this mosque, you know that he has been a rallying point for moderate Islam and a voice against intolerance. Which is what we're all saying we want from "these people", right? Where is peaceful Islam when al Qaida is out to destroy us? 
    Well, folks, they're right here, in lower Manhattan, preaching tolerance…. so we treat them with intolerance, tell them that, because of their religion, they aren't good enough to go places that "real" Americans go.

    Wow. Good idea. Way to act just like the societies we condemn who do not allow freedom of religion.
    These days, we act like "freedom of religion"  just means "freedom for everybody to share MY religion or be quiet!" Sure, you can be Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist… but if you don't look like I do, speak like I do, worship like I do, then please have the decency to stay out of sight.

    Finally, I just don't understand why so many otherwise good-hearted people are bothered by this. Why do you think it is your business? Why does it even matter to you? How does this adversely affect your life? No one is asking you to go to Cordoba House.  No one is going to try to convert you as you walk down the street… you know, the way some Christians do, handing out bibles in the park and shouting at you that you're a baby-killer and you're going to hell.

      The Muslim religion did not kill anyone, any more than Christianity killed people at Oklahoma city.  People do all sorts of evil things and make God the scapegoat. It's not God's fault.
     These people did not kill anybody. The members of this mosque were not out cheering in the streets when the towers fell. They're not terrorists- they are cab drivers and doctors and bank tellers. They live here and pay taxes and vote and send their kids to school, and I guarantee you, they were weeping for the hate that fell from the sky on September 11th, just like you were. How can their presence violate your hallowed ground? It's their hallowed ground, too!!

   This is the United States. Sometimes we are asked to tolerate things that make us uncomfortable, because that's who we're supposed to be. Don't turn America into an apartheid state where different people have different rights, subject to the whims of the majority. If that happens, to borrow from that annoying phrase we heard after 9/11– the terrorists have won. Because America won't be the land of the free any more.

     So relax. Un-clench yourselves just a little bit and look around you. The gay people across town have not ruined your life, the brown babies born at the hospital today haven't destroyed America, and the Cordoba House Mosque will only stab at your heart if you let it- if you take a knife and shove it in.

Update: Newt Gingrich says the mosque is a symbol of "Islamic triumphalism." Huh? You mean like those ghastly mega-churches, who call kids "God warriors"? So then Christian triumphalism is ok but not any other kind?
    He also said building the mosque there is "like the Nazi's putting a sign at a concentration camp."
   BZZZZZT!! Oh, gosh, sorry Newt, but thanks anyway for playing "World's Dumbest Analogies"!

   You know what is is like? It's like Japanese living near Pearl Harbor. It's almost exactly like that. The people we're talking about were there before it happened, have been there ever since and they personally had nothing at all to do with the attack. Yet there they are!!! Somebody alert Glen Beck, he'll want to get right on this OUTRAGE!

Target Corporation (affectionately known to many of us as "Tar-zhay") has a reputation for being very community oriented, with lots of charity programs, green programs, etc. This always made me feel better about all the money I spend there.

But Target has recently been caught with their pants down, so to speak. It has come to public attention that Target Corp has donated a large sum of money  to the Republican candidate for the governor's race in Minnesota, Tom Emmer.

The fact that Emmer is a Republican is hardly the scandal. (Target  spreads their donations out pretty evenly between republican and Democratic candidates, they assure us.) What is raising eyebrows (and voices) is that Emmer is a bit … reactionary in some areas. He has voted to slash funding for AIDS treatment, supports bringing laws like Arizona's "Driving While Brown!" immigration statue to Minnesota,  and came out recently in favor of cutting the states already reduced minimum wage for food workers because apparently, the woman who brings you coffee at Waffle House is getting filthy rich off your tips! But what really has people up in arms is that Tom Emmer has vowed to "protect marriage" in Minnesota by banning gay marriage, civil unions and anything approximating the rights of marriage for gay couples.

Naturally the GLBT community is wondering if they shouldn't shop somewhere else.

Target Corp was quick to say that they don't agree with Emmer's gay marriage position, but that with no candidate does one agree with all their policies. Their commitment to gay rights remains "unwavering", they insist.
Which raises the following two questions in my mind:

1) What is it about this Emmer character that they do agree with? Is it the "no money for AIDS" thing? Are they all excited about his anti-immigrant stand? Maybe it's that crackdown on rich waiters? If they find him worthy of such a substantial contribution, they must be very supportive of some portion of his policy position, yes?
I'm guessing it's his snake-oil tax policy, as in "lower taxes cure everything". If this is the case, then for them, it's all about getting their business taxes reduced.

Which brings me to my second question for the Target CEO.

2) What exactly about your new, lower tax state will you somehow pass on to your GLBT employees to make up for their loss of civil and basic human rights when Governor Emmer tries to whip up support for a law that will not only stop gay marriage but ensure that same-sex couples won't get inheritance rights, death-bed visitations, custody of the children they have helped raise, etc?

How will your "unwavering commitment" to their rights somehow protect them from THAT?

  You say "Hey, we still like gay people- and look how much money we give to food pantries!" and think that makes it OK  to donate OUR money (as in we the shoppers who gave 'em that money by shopping there)  to enable this crazy man to take away human rights. That is like assuring me that "it's nothing personal" while handing a crow bar to a guy who plans to hit me with it.

Actions matter. Doing good is lovely, but it doesn't erase the evil you do. Would giving money to battered women's shelters make it OK to support a candidate who wants to remove penalties for hitting your spouse? Well, sponsoring a float in the Pride parade doesn't make it OK to bankroll a man who wants to treat GLBT people as less than human.

Dear mostly Sirs-

     I would like to call upon you, as faithful citizens of the United States, to "refudiate" your entire platform and everything you stand for, and start again, from scratch.
      Seriously, guys, have you listened to yourself lately?

      You have become the party of not just "no" but of "Hell no!" and have even admitted that your plan is to simply oppose everything without offering alternatives. That way, no one will be able to attack you for how bad your own plans are. In other words, you plan to burn down the neighborhood so that you can complain about how inefficient the fireman are.

      You are the snake-oil party, because no matter what the economic situation: recession, depression, expansion, unemployment, stagnation- you insist that tax cuts for the rich will cure everything! And if they haven't helped so far, well, that's because you haven't cut taxes enough! And it'll get rid of your swollen feet and cure stubborn warts, too!  How did the Grand Old Party of "fiscal responsibility" come to this?
      You are now actually the welfare party, because you insist on continually funneling welfare to the rich: failed wall street executives, bankers, companies that move their factories and assets overseas- and pay for it by squeezing the poor.

     You are now the poster children FOR government interference in our private lives in the form of sodomy laws, gay marriage bans, abortion bans even for rape victims, "driving while brown" immigration laws and forcing our kids to be indoctrinated into one religion- yours- with your so-called "intelligent design" theory. Please accept these commemorative buckles for your hats and shoes, because the Puritans would be so proud of you!
      The only thing you want government to stay out of is business. You scream for less government regulation and oversight even as poorly maintained mines collapse and oil rigs blow, as tainted food and uninspected imports threaten the nations' health, as businesses rape the middle class and run for their offshore tax havens with what was supposed to be grandpa's retirement money. Yet you see no irony there.

      That's because you have more faces than a dodecahedron. You call yourself pro-life but keep trying to start more wars. You want to ban abortion but aren't willing to pay for childhood health care. You stand there whining about "fiscal responsibility" while you eagerly hand out trillions for an unnecessary war. You insist that you are the party of homeland security but your foreign policy creates more enemies every day.

      These days you are the party of people who set themselves on fire when they don't get their own way, of mis-spelled protest signs and red-faced people screaming  false talking points at public forums. You are reduced to pouts and rants and militant talk of secession and restricting civil right, disguised in Paul Revere costumes. It seems that Revolutionary War get-ups have become your white hood of the 21st century.
      Your lack of empathy and charity knows no bounds. When one of your standard-bearers makes fun of sick people and says that poor kids who are hungry should stop whining and go dumpster-diving, you rush to defend him against all criticism.
     You are now the tin-foil hat  weirdos who stand with your eyes squeezed shut, screaming "Well I haven't seen any birth certificate!!"
      You are the party of "blame the victim". Be the issue du jour immigrants, Muslims, the unemployed or the underpriveleged, you are ALL about attacking the scapegoat and nothing about finding a solution.
     Instead of the elephant, your party emblem should be a pitchfork and torch.

      You have become the party that stands for homelessness ignored, pollution cheered, food pantry shelves barren, for foreign civilians murdered by our mercenaries without consequence, for offering struggling veterans little more assistance than a stupid magnet on your car.
      You are now the gang in favor of the return of the poor house and the orphanage, insisting that unemployment makes people lazy and kids are better off in a group home than with gay adoptive parents.
       Things that were once considered merely "compassionate" you are so quick to label "socialism" that the word has lost its punch and you've had to up the ante to "Communism" and "Nazism". As in, "health care for poor citizens is something Hitler was in favor of". Come on!
      Thomas Jefferson is too much of a wild-eyed radical for you, and his philosophy and ideals are being replaced in your textbooks with such intellectual heavyweights as Newt Gingrich and Sara Palin. Really? Do you really think history will record her as anything more than an embarrassing cultural footnote?

      Honestly, you are the most politically limber bunch I"ve ever seen, able to twist yourself with pretzel logic into the most contorted, convoluted positions, to the point where the people who are against the stimulus can bitch about not getting enough stimulus without batting an eye. Doesn't it hurt your back to stick your head up your ass like that?

      While I am sure some of you actually believe the horrible things that you now stand for and have convinced themselves that America would be a better place… for them… if they were in charge, I cannot believe that most of you feel this way.
      I know that many of you, deep inside, believe in simple tolerance if not acceptance, believe that true homeland security requires economic stability and want all people to have a chance life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.. no matter where they pray, or don't. You've just allowed yourself to lose sight of what that means.
     You want SO much to be in charge that you've started to believe your own rhetoric as if it was carved on Moses' stone tablets. That is dangerous for any party, and it is dangerous for the nation as a whole.
     You're scared of what's going on in this uncertain world, and angry. We understand. After all, we survived the Bush years. (Well, most of us did. Sort of) But you need more than anger.

     Do yourself a favor. Do the nation a favor. Erase Glen Beck's insane chalkboard, and start over with your platform. Maybe consider things like freedom of speech for everyone, religious tolerance and an understanding that a nation that does not care for its weakest members can never be truly strong.
      We really need to have you back at the table. We know we don't have all the answers, but guys, lately, all you're bringing  us is hate. If that's the best you've got to offer the discussion, then we're all in a heap of trouble.

Sincerely,
    Me