Hate Will Triumph If We Let It

But We Don’t Have To!

 

This will be a somewhat bifurcated blog … the first part re-engaging a storm within our country, the second part a reminder, as much to myself as anyone else, not to be swept away by that storm.  It’s rather long.  But there’s a lot to say.

 

I observe the sickening virulence of anti-Islamic fever ravaging our country and, as a student of history, I can’t help but be reminded that this has all happened before.  The tradition of the “scapegoat” is ancient.  The original concept, as can be read in Hebrew Scripture, is that a goat, a scapegoat, is taken.  Our sins and troubles are dumped onto the goat by a the Priest.  The goat is then killed and burned as an offering and we become guiltless again.  Great for us.  Rather hard on the goat.

 

It always struck me as ironic that Jews, who started the scapegoat thing going, have been used more than any other humans as “scapegoats” for other humans.  There’s a plague?  Kill some Jews or at least deport them, that will solve it.  Feeling unworthy?  Kill some Jews or at least deport them, that will solve it.  Economic problems?  Kill some Jews, or at least deport them.  That will solve it.  I listen to the various rantings, not only about Muslims but about Hispanics and realize it’s all rooted in history.  Throughout history, people have tried to “solve” their economic problems by discriminating against and, when possible, throwing out someone weaker than they.  In the United States, the Irish faced it when they fled the famine to come here.  So have many, many others.  And lest we forget, the people who arrived at Plymouth Rock were undocumented aliens.

 

Still, it was left to Hitler to “perfect” the system.  All of Germany’s problems were because of the Jews.  Kill them.  Drive them off.  Do this and everything will be fine.  Stalin joined Hitler, expanding his prison and death camps to include a broader swathe of “intellectuals.”

 

Hitler and Stalin had something else in common.  They “perfected” the big lie.  Say something patently absurd and completely wrong.  Say it loud enough.  Say it often enough.  And not only will large numbers of people believe you, but those who don’t will be cowed into silence.

 

Today, channeling both Hitler and Stalin, comes a part of a political party that feels no shame in proclaiming that which is patently absurd and completely wrong.  They have learned to say it loud and often.  And if we have learned nothing else from history, we ought to have learned by now that we who know it to be wrong must not be silent.  We know that.  But where are our voices?  Our public voices?

 

Eboo Patel wrote a wonderfully reassuring, if perhaps a shade optimistic, piece called “America’s promise meant for everyone” that in effect reminds us that “this too will pass.”  My  respect for Mr. Patel, his intellect, his dedication and his work is unbounded.  But I am moved to ask, how many lives will be damaged, how many people hurt before “this too” passes?  It is indeed a time for hope.  But it is also a time for action. 

  

In my August 16^th blog I talked about how freedom of religion is being undermined in this country.  I spoke of  the willful and malevolent equating of Al Qaeda to Islam.  I pointed out that this is the same as damning all of Christianity for the evil worked by the KKK.  Collective guilt.  It’s what allowed the U.S. government to sanction putting Japanese Americans into prisons (“internment camps”).  Mr. Patel references this too, but he passes to quickly over it with the calming reassurance that “this too passed.”  But lives were destroyed before it passed.  Just as lives were destroyed by McCarthyism before it too “passed.”  Lives will be destroyed before the sickness that is sweeping much too much of this country passes unless those of us who know it to be wrong speak up.

 

This takes me to the second part of this blog.  I had a wonderful visit with a long time friend last week.  In her nineties, she can no longer see.  She can’t see the organ keyboard that she could once play so beautifully.  She can no longer see the words in the books she once read so voraciously.  Today I got a final e-mail from her saying that even with all the modern wonders available, she could no longer use a computer and was giving it up.

 

But what is so wonderful about this amazing lady is not what she has given up, but what she still does!  She still reads.  She gets books on tape and thus still reads voraciously.  She has music on CDs and thus still is involved with music.  She can’t watch, but she listens to the news and still stays deeply involved in the issues that have engaged her for the ninety plus years she has been gracing this planet.

 

Too often we, and I absolutely include myself in that we, become overwhelmed by what we cannot do.  Anne is a reminder to me that this is a waste of time.  What we need to ask ourselves is what CAN we do?  And actually, that’s the easy part.  Then we need to do it!!

 

I once took out a full page ad regarding the war in Iraq.  I did it after weeks of bemoaning what I could not do.  In all honesty, I was also afraid.  What would happen if I made myself “noticed.?” But I felt I had no choice, applied what writing skills I had, bit the huge financial bullet and took out the ad.  For me, at that moment, DOING something rather than bemoaning “What can I do?” was more important than my retirement savings, more important than the hate messages I indeed did receive, by e-mail and over the phone. 

 

I’m am pointedly NOT suggesting we all raid our retirements.  But what I am suggesting is that sitting by while demagogues wage a mindless war on Islam (some appear to be doing it for money, others because hate is SUCH a potent political weapon), we must not stand by.  Nor can we afford to take comfort in “this too shall pass.” 

 

Most of us aren’t in office.  Most of us don’t have the money to take out huge ads (I could only afford to do it once).  The point is NOT to dwell on what we cannot do, but to consider what we can do … and then do it.  The time to act is now. 

 

What can we do?  We can write letters to the editor.  We can send whatever $ we can to candidates for public office who would not tar an entire religion because of the evil deeds of fanatics.  We can visit a local mosque, just to say “Hello” and say “I may not be Muslim, but I believe in America,  I believe in freedom of religion, and I believe in your right to pray as you feel called.”  Oh, and you can also go to www.waronprayer.org and sign the petition. 

 

Please, don’t bemoan what you cannot do.  Take strength and courage from what you can do.

Undermining Freedom of Religion

 

My emotions are tearing me every which way.  Anger.  Sadness.  Bewilderment.  When do we learn?  By whatever we hold sacred: when do we learn!???

 

I won’t dredge up the past two thousand years or so of slaughter, hatred and bigotry all under the twin themes of religious self-righteousness and an imagined “collective guilt” of one group or another.   I won’t revisit how anti-Catholics argued against ratifying the U.S. Constitution because freedom of religion would allow “Papists” to hold office.  Let’s just look seventy years into the past of  the United States.

 

A strong interfaith statement has just been made about the bigoted brouhaha over a proposed Muslim community center two blocks from “Ground Zero.”  If you haven’t seen the statement, it’s worth reading, not only for the content but for the broad spectrum of religious leaders who signed it.  Here's a link. 

 

But even this strongly worded document misses what for me is a glaring example of the use of collective guilt.  I was going to write “misuse”, but the idea of collective guilt is by definition always misused.

 

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the United States government reacted by rounding up Japanese-American residents and citizens and locking them away, without trial, in internment camps.  It will forever be a blot on our history.  And I will admit that it is deeply personal for me.  My friend and mentor, a wonderful human being, retired Methodist minister and U.S. citizen spent part of his childhood in such a camp.  Another friend of many years was born in such a camp. 

 

The blatant racism, virulent bigotry and true evil exposed by the raging feelings against any and all people of Japanese ancestry overwhelmed any sense of justice.  Our Constitution was thrown out the window – in no small part because while the lunatics ran wild, those with any moral sensibility were cowed into silence.

 

And now we are doing it again.  This time in the name of 9-11, far too many of us are willing to throw the Constitution into the dung heap.  The President of the United States, to his great credit, spoke out.  And for having the temerity of wanting to uphold the Constitution, he is now being savaged by those who would “protect” the Constitution by burning it into cinders.

 

Are you willing to trash every Christian who has ever lived because of the violent insanities of the KKK?  If not, then the only reason for blaming all of Islam for the lunatic actions of Al Qaeda, is racism or mass hysteria –flamed by fear-mongering political leaders who by their words have surrendered any right to serve.

 

For those who pretend that this is all about a “mosque built at ground zero” (despite the fact that it’s two blocks from ground zero and a community center that will indeed include a place for Islamic worship), the lie is given to their statements by the fact that mosques are being objected to across the nation.  It’s not just near “ground zero”.  It’s anywhere. 

 

This is not about 9-11.  It’s about an epidemic of bigotry, hidden behind the cloak of collective guilt.  We should name it for what it is.  If we believe in freedom of religion then we need to stand up to those who would undermine that freedom in the mindless pursuit of collective guilt and vengeance.

Please Help Spread Some Light

 

Most of us at one time or another has faced that modestly intriguing philosophical question: “If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

 

I will pose you another question.  If seven people are put in prison for the “crime” of practicing their faith, and the media ignores it, has it really happened?

 

Today it was confirmed that seven leaders of the Baha’i faith were sentenced to twenty years in prison, this after nearly two years imprisonment without being charged. 

 

Besides being outraged and deeply saddened by the events, I am perhaps equally outraged and saddened by the lack of coverage by the world media and, since I live here, the news media in the United States.

 

There’s been plenty of coverage of the outrageous imprisonment of three American hikers.  But next to nothing about this. 

 

I would offer you to two links that can fill you in on some of the particulars.  One is from Iran Press Watch, a group I have relied on to get what information I could over the past two years, as these seven Baha’i souls have under threat of execution for their beliefs.  The other is the Baha’i World News Service, which I only recently came upon.

 

My question here is apart from this monstrous offence to human rights.  My question is where is the news coverage?  Where is the outrage?

 

If these were seven Americans, the headlines would be screaming.  If these were seven Christians, the headlines would be screaming.  If these were seven Jews, the headlines would be screaming (at least in the U.S.).  But it’s seven Baha’i, and so there is silence.

 

This is an affront to all of us.  I’m not talking just about what the government of Iran is doing.  I’m talking about the silence that greets it.  THIS IS AN AFFRONT TO ALL OF US! 

 

When do we learn?  I am, here at my keyboard, literally brought to tears.  When do we learn?

 

Do we not know about the Baha’i?  There are roughly seven million worldwide.  But many are unaware of the faith.  They are “other.”  And, to our shame, much too often we feel we can ignore transgressions against the “other.”

 

They are not “other” to me.  I have friends who walk the spiritual path of the Baha’i.  Just as I walk the spiritual path of Judaism.  Just as other friends walk the path of Christianity and Islam. 

 

But we have to get past this idea of “other.”  We are all brothers and sisters.  We are all brothers and sisters and if we can’t finally learn that, what hope can we leave our children?

 

So what can we do?  First, we can get at least a little informed.  And then we can write letters: letters to our Congressional representatives calling for outrage and letters to the editor of our local papers calling for coverage. 

 

Light.  What is being done today is being done within the safety of darkness.  The plight of the Baha’i in Iran deserves at least some light.  Each of us, all of us, can help to spread that light.