I almost never read other message boards - many of the things I’m interested in reading about or discussing are covered here, by people that are mainly interested in civilized, intelligent discourse.
I made the mistake today of venturing over to ABCnews.com’s boards, and I was nauseated by what I saw.
“Nuke the ragheads”, “Kill All Muslim Children”, “All Arabs Must Die”…it goes on and on.
Many people chimed in with their agreements to those sentiments. The few that posted to say “Not all brown people are evil, we don’t know yet who did this, please stop” were shouted down as traitors.
Look one way, and you see Americans coming together as a united front against fear and hatred. Look the other way, and the sick and twisted bigoted assholes scream for blood and don’t care who gets hurt…even other Americans.
I’m scared. I’m scared for the place my country might become. I’m scared that my child goes to a school that is heavily populated with Muslim children, children who could become targets for misdirected vengeance. I’m scared that the people who made these disgusting posts are my neighbors, co-workers, friends. I’m scared that a different, quieter, insidious evil exists in far more Americans than I ever realized.
I’ve always thought most people were like the Dopers. You know, decent. Good. Reasonable. That bigots and fearmongerers were the exception, not the rule.
We’re sheltering YOU? Then we’d better carpet-nuke ourselves! Ditto for Canada, which has been linked with the terrorists (they might have visited once). So what if the prevailing winds around here come from Canada? We have to be willing to take a few casualties in the interest of revenge.
I fear for my children, whose schools bracket a mosque. There are so many nuts these days. I have to remind myself that they are mostly blowhards who wouldn’t actually follow through on their threats.
That’s the best thing about this place. Here, the jerks are recognized as such and are thrown out. Other places, they’re embraced.
dropzone, EJ’s Girl, I hope you’re right, that nothing will come from these people, that it’s empty posturing. Then again, did you hear about the group of teenagers here in Chicago that were screaming filth outside a mosque? I just don’t know.
It seems we are never given enough peace to let racism go away.
Children in New England (RI I believe, but totally unimportant where they were from in the end) were yelling all manner of racist and hateful remarks as police took someone away who looked vaguely arabic. I think he was actually arrested on unrelated charges (not that all aren’t being arrested on unrelated charges right now, but anyway).
Unfounded hate shouts the loudest, I think, and yet is ever the minority.
Just keep in mind that many of the same people who are so outraged they’re yelling Nuke the Ragheads are the same people who can’t be bothered to click on a link and donate as low as $1 to the Red Cross. Yelling and posturing is all they’re good for, and as long as it doesn’t interfere with the people actually doing something, they can yell to their hearts content.
In East Lansing Michigan, the house next to the Mosque (across from the campus) was shot at last night. The police are actively protecting the Mosque (yes, the house that was shot up was inhabited by Muslims).
A block down from my son’s school is a party store that has been family run for many many years. You guessed ‘what kind of family’, right? as my son passed by it last night, it was surrounded by fire trucks, police tape and cop cars.
I spoke this morning to a friend of mine whos 3 sons have a Muslim father. She is afraid for her sons. She’s been listening to the bloodthirsty rhetoric that only occasionally mentions ‘only those responsible’.
This is why I’ve been urging cautionary tones since it happened. This is why I’m objecting to the words ‘this is war’. This is why I’ve been maintaining the position of ‘we must seek out those responsible, locate and secure them and only them’.
Once you’ve tossed that match down, it’s awfully difficult to contain the flames.
I have a friend who is 2nd generation Eastern Indian ie, her parents are from the continent of India, her religion is Jainism and she works in a hospital in New York City. Would you believe she had to put in overtime yesterday and on her walk home was verbally assaulted (in regard to the WTC) several times by several different people ?
People can be so ignorant on so many different levels it boggles the mind.
