Why is it that we insist on finding people or classes of people we can disdain, or to whom we can feel superior?
All the vitriol surrounding the propsed mosque at Ground Zero in the shadow of the anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday is making me nuts.
We are supposed to be better than this. In the short history of our country, people who have been shunned in their homeland would come to the United States seeking a better way of life for their families, seeking equality and opportunity. At first, many considered them ignorant or dirty or somehow "less." ("No Irish need apply.") Hard work and personal connection changed the perception over time.... lessons were learned. But apparently they've been forgotten.
Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times on Wednesday about two Jewish women whose husbands were killed on 9/11-- both women were pregnant at the time-- who have gone on to truly "turn the other cheek." They're turning an act of hate and violence into an amazing act of positively "paying it forward." They established a foundation to encourage Afghan women to start their own businesses-- to empower them and allow them to make their own way.
I'm hopeful that the vitriol will lead more rational people to step up and take a stand against bigotry and for equality... It's NOT about the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. It's about fear, and worry that somehow what we have materially is threatened. The fact that we can all yell and shout and cry about it is good, but violence against another's culture or religion is not the answer.
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