I don't usually verse in editorial and/or political comment. This is one of the rare occurence where I might have something interesting to say about the subject. There is a big surge of opposition to Barack Obama's decision to stand behind the idea of a Mosque near Ground Zero. Am I the only one who see the Great Gesture Of Peace here. Yes, with capital letter. The kind of peace gesture that would be talked about in History books in hundred years, not a mundane "peace is important" speech, not an insipid "release of the dove" symbolic-gesture-that-engages-to-nothing. No, a concrete statement against racial and religious hatred. What's wrong with that?
Of course, I was expecting the Sean Hannitys and Newt Gingriches of this world to get pent up over this. But the uproar has a wider shockwave this time. But why? Oh right, the memory of the 9/11 victims. It's an easy excuse to speak for the dead. As much as I'd like to preserve their memories, there's another variable that came into play: war. A nine years, unjustifiable war against the Middle Eastern countries in the name of freedom. Their freedom, the American freedom, our freedom, global freedom. Such a fitting and righteous term to wage war over. Being at war for those who don't have to hit the battlefield is about standing up for your ideals and fighting for what you think is right.
Truth is, war kills people. For the last nine years, the mangled, deformed and dead bodies of under-aged, under-trained but courageous soldiers are coming back to the country in coffins more often than not. The War on Terror is killing more American people than the 9/11 itself. Here I'm not even counting the Arabic families that were already fighting for survival before they had to worries about death, falling from the sky and foreigners trying to educate them to a "civilized" way of life. They are getting told that everything they ever stood for was wrong as they watch helplessly the McDonald's arch casting shadow over their city.
Now, I'm no left-wing hardcore or anything. There's good and bad on both sides, but isn't it an oxymoron to fight against a powerful display of freedom of religion? O'Reilly, Gingrich, Hannity and all those poisonous toads who kept hammering the word "freedom" like it was the new hip thing suddenly shy away from it? You shy away from the thing you've been fighting over for the last nine years? I call that cowardice. All these snake tongues stand behind freedom, but they can't face it. This is what freedom is all about and this is what's written in that Good Book, you're all waving around once your political arguments are getting picked apart.
"Turn the other cheek" Jesus said.
Now that the Great Leader elected in 2008 proposes that, he sends a shockwave of fear and anger. What are you so scared of? That terrorists will bomb the Mosque too? Nothing's going to happen if a Mosque is build on Ground Zero. America won't lose its identity and certainly not its freedom. Terrorists attack and most likely to reduce and there will be a shockwave of peace throughout the whole world. The USA is going to lead by example. Isn't that why you guys elected Barack Obama at the first place?
You fed off promises for so many years. It's now time to turn and face the freedom you fought for. Please, build that Mosque.
