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Re: this inflames me... (no OtR)

On Fri, 19 Jul 2002 JLuvzMusyk at aol_com wrote:

> > but that shouldn't give us the right to lock someone up just because
> > they are of a certain race/religion.
>
> i agree with this 150%!  when the chamber singers flew to europe, one of
> our own, mr. greg abdalah, was stopped and questioned and all sorts of
> things.  yes, he is of lebanese decent.  he's also an american citizen
> and the son of a minister at an orthodox church.  but he *looked*
> threatening, just because he doesn't look like *us*, whatever *we* may
> look like.

There's a big difference between locking someone up and asking questions,
though.  They wouldn't have known that this person of Lebanese descent was
an Orthodox Christian, or whatever, unless they had asked him, right?

> also, while in europe, i met many people who were islamic, and they had
> nothing but peaceful wishes for america and for the christians that they
> met.  how many tragedies occured because of crazy christian people (was
> waco, texas the result of some cult gone awry?) . . .

No, that one was the result of government agencies gone awry.  ;)

> . . . but no one is blaming that entire religion.  so, why should we
> blame all of the arabic communities and all of the islamic people for
> the actions of one crazy faction of that same religion?

Asking questions and casting blame are not the same thing.  And like it or
not, racial profiling works.  To quote The National Post's Jonathan Kay:

   http://www.topica.com/lists/dadl-ot/read/message.html?mid=800903256

   [ snip ]

   The fact is, those who plot the annihilation of our civilization are of 
   one religion and, almost without exception, one race. Yet admitting
   this is a problem for Mr. Chretien, for it conflicts with the doctrine
   of multiculturalism, which many Canadians treat as inviolate.
   Multiculturalism is a relativistic creed that assumes all immigrant
   cultures are equally tolerant, civilized and enlightened once you
   scratch the surface. In many cases, it requires that we turn a blind
   eye to the hatreds and pathologies that pop up disproportionately in
   some groups. We pretend, for instance, that the high incidence of
   domestic abuse, violent homophobia, honour killings, teen pregnancy and
   gang violence among certain communities is a result of external factors
   such as racism, disenfranchisement or poverty.

   In peacetime, indulging this wilful blindness is a low-stakes game. But
   in times of war, such self-deception carries a heavy price. New Jersey
   police recently stopped using racial profiling to decide which cars to
   pull over and search, with the result that drug busts dropped by 55% on
   the Garden State Parkway in 2000. Making cops fight with one hand tied
   behind their back may be acceptable in the war on drugs. But who would
   accept a 55% reduction in terrorist arrests if that were the price of
   avoiding distinctions "based on race, religion and ethnic prejudice"?

   [ snip ]

> i went to a comedy club last night, and the comedian, who *was* really
> funny, did a song parody to _my sharona_, called _die, osama_.  i think
> i was the only one in the audience who wasn't laughing/singing along.
> i'm not sure if that makes me a bad person, or not...

I generally don't like cheering on the death of *anybody*.  It bugs me to
see how casually an "entertainer" like Jay Leno can talk to George
Stephanopolous about how "we" plan to bump off Saddam Hussein ... even
though I'm sure Saddam very much needs to be deposed, at least.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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