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It Pains Me to Agree with Sarah Palin
Akron, OH
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sometimes being a democracy is a bitch. It means we have to
listen to as many opposing, often stupid viewpoints, as we have good points!
If we want the freedom to voice our own viewpoint then we have an obligation to listen to others.
Then we have the Bill of Rights, a particularly thorny area. This amendment prohibits any law from impeding the free exercise of religion, even when the location of the religion would be Ground Zero.
Palin tweeted, "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does throughout the heartland" referring to the proposed Mosque.
It does stab me in the heart. As it did when Nazi groups had the right to protest down the public streets in Skokie, an Illinois city with a high percentage of Holocaust survivors. Even more hurtful because the reverse would not be true.
A synagogue could not be built next to a meaningful site in an Arab country, and Jews could not have protested down the streets in Germany.
New York City Mayor Bloomberg and Attorney General Cuomo have both voiced their support for the 13-story project. Political correctness has its strengths and weaknesses.
The second point on which it pains me to agree with Palin is her outreach to peace seeking Muslims. In her tweets she asks them to understand that the mosque would interfere with the healing process.
Wouldn't it be something if Muslims stood up and said this is not the right place for this mosque? Wouldn't it be something if these peace seeking Muslims who have allowed their religion to be hijacked by the extremists, stood up and said,
NO?
I don't often agree with her, and I certainly hope I spell more accurately. It's not so much her comments I agree with as my wish that those peace-seeking Muslims really did exist and would stand up and be heard.
listen to as many opposing, often stupid viewpoints, as we have good points!
If we want the freedom to voice our own viewpoint then we have an obligation to listen to others.
Then we have the Bill of Rights, a particularly thorny area. This amendment prohibits any law from impeding the free exercise of religion, even when the location of the religion would be Ground Zero.
Palin tweeted, "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does throughout the heartland" referring to the proposed Mosque.
It does stab me in the heart. As it did when Nazi groups had the right to protest down the public streets in Skokie, an Illinois city with a high percentage of Holocaust survivors. Even more hurtful because the reverse would not be true.
A synagogue could not be built next to a meaningful site in an Arab country, and Jews could not have protested down the streets in Germany.
New York City Mayor Bloomberg and Attorney General Cuomo have both voiced their support for the 13-story project. Political correctness has its strengths and weaknesses.
The second point on which it pains me to agree with Palin is her outreach to peace seeking Muslims. In her tweets she asks them to understand that the mosque would interfere with the healing process.
Wouldn't it be something if Muslims stood up and said this is not the right place for this mosque? Wouldn't it be something if these peace seeking Muslims who have allowed their religion to be hijacked by the extremists, stood up and said,
NO?
I don't often agree with her, and I certainly hope I spell more accurately. It's not so much her comments I agree with as my wish that those peace-seeking Muslims really did exist and would stand up and be heard.
Leslie Ungar
President
Electric Impulse Communications, Inc.
Akron, OH
330-668-6569
