but I digress...
Let me start with a little story before I express my newest opinion on this issue.
About 25 years ago, I am sitting on a naval destroyer piddling around in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; a task we fondly referred to as "missile sponge" duty. Anyway, this small island nation announced that it was claiming all waters around itself out to a distance of 50 miles. This meant if you were inside this zone, you were trespassing. Well, the United States only recognizes 12 miles. In response to the "mouse that roared" we were immediately sent to park ourselves 12 miles off of their coast. We stayed for a few days and then left. the message was clear. The issue was resolved and now we never have to deal with a singular nation claiming more than its share of the ocean.
So now, the mosque is going to be built and this preacher, in retaliation, is going to publicly burn a copy of the Quaran. My initial thought was, "Really? Seems like you will needlessly be stirring up a screaming hoard of Heathen Stoners.
General Petraeus has come out and said that such an act will needlessly stir up the Afghans he is working with and put our soldiers at risk. (Please keep in mind I have no children in uniform so the following reflects that.)
Now this feels completely different to me. Forget about the mosque. What has happened here is that we have finally begun to negotiate with terrorists.
The Muslim nations are telling us that if we do something that they don't approve of - if we do something that specifically demonstrates how free we really are - if we don't behave as they tell us to, they will attack our families; specifically the children many Americans have overseas. They threaten violence in our cities.
All because we have the right to burn a book and they don't want us to.
If we give in here, what is next? A Muslim woman in the Bronx commits adultery - They hear about it and insist we stone her to death. I can see you saying that this is completely different from needlessly stirring up the nomadic masses. I don't think so. Depriving us of our first amendment rights is big stuff.
Now, if I were in Iran and the law forbade me to burn the Quaran and I did it anyway, then I feel I would justifiably be subjected to their legal system. However, we are not in Iran. This is America. No religion, no government, no anything from the outside can tell us how to behave in Our House!
Don't burn it to protest the Mosque. Don't burn it because it's a Muslim thing.
I really wish this had nothing to do with religion because for me, it doesn't. I disagree with the reverend in Florida. He actions seem to be based on attacking the Muslim religion which seems petty to me. I am not on his side as far as that rationale goes.
For me, it's more like this. Suppose I am at a car dealership, ready to buy a car. The only thing I am not sure about is the color. Now suppose a man comes in and says, "If you buy the blue car, I will harm you." The very next words out of my mouth would be, "I'll take the blue one." This is possibly not the best example because one could argue that the man is really controlling my behavior knowing that I would do what he told me not to do - but I think you get the point.
Burn it because you are not willing to give up the right to do so.
Whew.....I feel kind of strong about this.
But alas, I have a world to save.
Up, up and away...
j
