At the risk of superfluity, we must express our outrage towards Pastor Terry Jones (our least favorite member of Monty Python) and his Church of the Grizzled Hick or whatever the hell they call themselves. In case you haven't heard, Jones has decided to "honor" the memory of 9/11 with a celebratory bonfire of Korans.
Yeah, that'll show Osama that he's got the wrong idea about Americans.
Of course, convincing Osama is not really part of the agenda. Or maybe it is--the fact is, we are clueless as to what, exactly, Jones hopes to accomplish.
OK, we're not clueless. We know what Jones hopes to accomplish. Smoking pyres of Korans will lead to smoking pyres of mosques--or, we can only hope, Muslims! Of course, being a good man of God, Jones would be shocked--shocked!--were his actions to lead to such violence. Not that he'd complain.
Members of the administration and the military are appealing to Jones' sense of patriotism to get him to call off his pogrom; they say that this inflammatory action will, well, inflame the masses in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, and could put young Americans at risk. Frankly, we find this argument disingenuous. After all, our young soldiers are already at risk, and we doubt the repugnant actions of a sociopath will increase their danger to any appreciable degree.
If anything, we fear the attention paid Jones by the politicians and generals somehow legitimizes him--somehow sends the message to the Islamic world that this guy actually speaks for America and so must be silenced. These requests ultimately put Jones in a win-win situation: If he burns the Koran, he has stood up to the limp-wristed powers-that-be; if he backs down, he gets to claim that he is only doing so out of consideration for our troops.
(If Jones is so militantly anti-Islamic, by the way, why doesn't he strap on some body armor and go fight the Jihadi where they live? Oh, right, that would require actual courage.)
We feel helpless right now. We raise our voice and scream, we encourage our Facebook friends and others to denounce Pastor Jones and his congregation of hate, but we know we're largely preaching to the converted. What we would love to see is NOT Terry Jones backing down in a pseudo-show of civic-mindedness. In our fantasy, we imagine Jones standing in front of a bonfire of Korans, surrounded by his whooping, dribbling, leering pack of semi-human jackals--all of whom should have their names and images published in as many outlets as possible (hey, wouldn't they be proud to have their "patriotism" so acknowledged)--and, beyond them, watching silently and with dignity, thousands upon thousands of real Americans, saying a silent prayer for the future of this country.
Not for nothin', as they say, but: Terry Jones (who is a mon of God in the same sense that Mon O' War was a real soldier) is not only a lunatic with a fringe following (his "congregation" (i.e. collection of loonies) numbers about 50), but he is so regarded in his home town where the only two things people do about him (SANE people) is laugh at him or ignore him. His big crusade would have been less than a blip on the smallest radar had not our drama-hungry media, desperate to fill 24 hours a day with ratings, had not latched on to the tale and made this Whack Job (in every sense of the word) important. Much as I hate to admit it, more and more I am leaning towards the side of those (in both parties) who tend to blame the media for much of our woes. They have, all too often, stopped reporting the news in favour of making it up.
ReplyDeleteI think the phrase 'church of the grizzled hick' should be one of the things we preserve when society collapses.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to say it, and as stupid and ignorant (dare I say retarded) this whole thing is, he does have the right to do it. Much like there is no argument from me about the "ground zero mosque," this is part of his freedom of speech, which is protected in the constitution, considering he is not putting anybody directly in harm's way, or terrorizing anybody. I do not defend his actions or stupidity, but I will defend the constitution. If I am wrong about the freedom of speech thing, please correct me, because it really pains me to say he has the right to do this. I personally think it's a disgusting act.
ReplyDeleteI like what Honeypie Horse said. We had a huge family discussion yesterday. The girls and the babiez invaded my house, ate my food and spouted radical rhetoric! We have a personal concern with this, as you know. Bottom line though, hard as it may be, this idiot (Mr. Jones--not me) has every right to burn whatever book he wants to.
ReplyDeleteThere is no clear "enemy" in this war. Terrorists come from all nations, but have one commonality...they are Muslim extremists. The focus therefore becomes the religion. Christians have a long history of religious intolerance(Crusades anybody?) and backroom dealings(Hitler?). Why should they care if my son is put in an even more precarious position because of their ignorance?
Just to clarify: We do acknowledge Jones' first-amendment right to burn whatever books he pleases. We suggest some Dan Brown. We also agree with Anonymous (first time for everything) that far too much ink has been spilled on this wretch--including our own; still, once the topic has been put out there, we feel as much condemnation should be heaped on this man as the traffic will allow. We'd just love to hear Obama come out and say, "Yes, Mr. Jones has every right to do this. Still, make no mistake: The man is a douchebag."
ReplyDeleteI second the Dan Brown book burning. I think all of us understand his basic right to do as he pleases, but as you said--he deserves mountains of condemnation heaped upon his douchebaggedness. I hate the idea of people around the world thinking we are all the same as this dork.
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