Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering
-Yoda
Yoda?!? Yes Yoda. As ridiculous as this "Ground Zero Mosque" issue has become I figured why not. And, for the current situation Yoda, yes Yoda, is completely appropriate.
America, your slip... dark side is showing.
Yesterday after viewing the actions of protesters at Ground Zero as they accosted a man who to them appeared to be Muslim I took to my Facebook page to post the video and ask what was wrong with these individuals. I also posted an article about issues Coptic Christians had prior to this incident when they were mistaken for Muslims. In posting the second piece I asked: Is there no end to this stupidity? That question set off a debate about the value of such a question and whether or not the question itself added to or even on its own created an atmosphere of chaos.
What struck me about the conversation was that the pushback came because some felt that I was accusing the people whose actions I had chosen to label as acting stupidly of being stupid when they have the right to struggle with their feelings on these matters. I am sensitive to the fear which grips people causing them to act in a way that seems out of character; but when it is more than an internal struggle, when Coptic Christians need suffer because you can not control your fear and it metastasizes into hate when sihks are shot and killed because they appear Muslim when a man can't walk to work because his skin is brown and he is wearing a 'Muslim looking hat' and so appears to be Muslim - those things are stupid and they would be stupid even if they had guessed right and the targets were Muslim.
Why is it that these people's ignorance never leads them to inquire about the perceived enemy? Then maybe they would understand the issue that arises when you confuse the Muslim for the Sikh given the history between the two. Then maybe they would understand how foolish it is to think that a Wahbi and Sufi sect Muslim are all the same thing is. But the fear never leads us in this direction and I am not supposed to think that the actions, very conscious actions, of these people as against others are stupid?!?
They have never stopped coming for the Communists, the labor organizations are constantly under attack and in this equation the Jews have been replaced with the Muslims - who do you think is next? The very people, the very 'good' people who would engage me for calling out this giving in to our fears are who.
It is not the way we speak of these things to say that we are engaged in battle but we are. We are at war. It is a war for hearts and minds. The weapons of this war are rhetoric and ideology. While this war appears bloodless it is no less deadly than any other war in which anyone has ever engaged. Our soldiers are upright but staring at their boots trying to decide if words used to describe attacks on the innocent are nice enough.
The other side has no such compunction. They have a weapon of mass distraction, confusion and yes destruction called identity politics which they will deploy at will. The game hasn't changed only, the day. Atwater may be dead but the plan remains unchanged - use that which we hide from others but which remains the core of who we are those things which strike at the very fears we seek to cover up to mobilize us for their own cause. This is identity politics. They use who we are and what we see as "other" to enrich themselves, grab power, and even convince us to willingly give away our liberties. They are not staring at their boots they have chosen their targets and are looking straight ahead.
When they come, and they will come, we must have no tale of those who they came for before us as we stood by. It is past time to look up from our boots to face forward and to open our mouths. When fear is manifest in irrational anger it is easy to identify but that is as a speck of sawdust we see in their eye compared to the plank we do not in our own. Be not afraid.
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