Mosque-erade Bawl

To say we would not be here without Islam is a bit of an understatement. While Europe suffered through the Dark Ages, Islamic scholars were continuing the work of ancient Greek, Indian, and Egyptian scientists and philosophers, working on elements of physics, chemistry, astronomy, geometry, and mathematics. They were responsible for bringing the concept of 'zero' as a number into the numeric systems of the time, from India. The English language is filled reminders of this time: alchemy, algebra, cipher, mecca, and the like. The knowledge harbored and expounded upon made its way into Europe, and thus planted the seeds of enlightenment that led to the Renaissance.

Islam is a distinct offshoot of Christianity, wherein the prophet Muhammad was considered to have taken God's word from the archangel Gabriel. It makes reference to Abraham, Moses, even Jesus, sharing lineage with both the Talmud and the Bible. It, too, demands a strong obedience to God, and lays down the ways to commune better with him. Everything a Muslim does is to be for Allah, nothing less. Their ways may be different than the path taken in Judeo-Christian theology, but all three religions strive for the same thing: to do good works on Earth to please God.

That there are those in the Islamic faith who would pick and choose from the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, and use it toward their own ends, is no different than those who do so in any religion. There are those who pervert the Torah or the Bible, all in the name of "proving" their faith is the "true" faith, their belief the one-and-only to be followed. Sometimes it comes to nothing harmful; many times -- as in the case Jim Jones' Guyana Cult or the Branch Davidians or al Qaeda -- the fervency of belief leads to death and destruction, the taking of lives, and incomprehensible horror.

That Muslims should be tarred with a brush dipped in the blood spilled by Osama bin Laden is a travesty. His zealotry and self-aggrandizement are affronts to the religion he supposedly holds dear, and that he would make war on innocents, condemns him for the coward he is. He will not reap the golden dreams of his beliefs, instead tasting the bitter fruit of condemnation, when his God will show him the error of his ways. We, however, cannot concern ourselves with this, for his actions have brought forth another travesty, against the United States, and not just in the senseless loss of life on 9/11, but how eagerly Americans have been willing to sell out their principles due to fear and obfuscation and outright lies.

The Founding Fathers made it clear, through the auspices of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, that they believed religious freedom and tolerance were paramount for a nation to be successful. Enjoining the Federal government against establishing any religion as the state religion assured all Americans that their beliefs would be protected, if not always respected. It was important for the country to have people of faith, they thought, because they were more likely to act morally, and protectively, toward their fellow countrymen. This would be needed, if the fledgling country were to survive past its inception, as revolution and constitution did not guarantee that another nation would not seek to enslave the young country.

So it has been for over two hundred years, that individuals have had the right to worship as they chose, and establish houses of worship. There has always been a sense that rather than dividing us along the lines of belief, this would make us strong through our diversity. Now, that strength is being threatened, by fear-mongers, ideologues, and sycophants, who seek to confuse, alarm, and terrify the citizenry with Muslim cabals and the threat of terrorist training centers in their midst. They have latched onto a project a few blocks from Ground Zero, wherein a 13-story Muslim cultural center will be built, as their proof that Muslims are going to begin their takeover of our nation, tearing down the Constitution, and implementing their law, subjugating us all.

It would be laughable, if their cries were not in earnest. Some of the biggest names in politics have spoken out against it: Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, etc. Families of 9/11 victims have called it a "slap in the face." The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has been supportive, as has President Obama, citing the principle of religious freedom in the Constitution. The whole issue has taken on a dynamic that is akin to a tornado of conflicting emotions and religious prejudice. Battle lines are being drawn. Chaos is sweeping over downtown Manhattan.

As someone who was in New York City on September 11th, I have to say that I have a certain amount of sympathy for those who view the area as hallowed ground. Every visit there evokes strong emotions in me, and I am often brought to tears, recalling the events of the day which I watched from a distance, though was close enough to see with my own eyes. It speaks to me of innocence, misery, suffering, bravery, and hope. I am more appalled by the thought of a new tower being built there, instead of a park with two black marble walls outlining the spaces where the Towers stood, inscribed with the names of the fallen. Commerce has its way; hallowed ground is about to become an office building. Why that is not more of an affront to the families, I cannot say, but it is definitely an affront to me, almost like putting a riverboat casino on the site of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

I do not wish to insult those who suffered the greatest losses that day, the loss of a loved one, but to claim this cultural center somehow denigrates the memory of 9/11 is rank hypocrisy. A mosque already exists near the site, which was operating before the Twin Towers were even open; no one has complained about it. This is only a cultural center, a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, that will not even been seen from it, blocked as it will be by two city blocks full of taller buildings. It may, in fact, revitalize a dying part of town, as the area around there still suffers the scars, with abandoned buildings and empty shop fronts, a job that was supposed to be done by business interests and/or the government.

This cultural center is only an issue because powerful forces, aligned against Islam since that day (and even before), have determined to make it their mission to bring the religion down in America, violating the principles of freedom we hold dear. In raising this fuss over an innocuous and potentially useful building, they play right into the hands of the extremists they so want to keep out, who can use this news as a recruiting tool in their war against America. Rather than dealing terrorism a blow, they are instead handing them ammunition, as Muslims who see this will gladly donate to, or join, the cause. We have shouted for years about our democratic principles and their superiority, and now we show how hollow those words are, for we are ready to toss them aside, to the delight of our foes, who can then point to our hypocrisy.

If anything, we need this cultural center. We need it to create greater understanding of Islam and what it stands for. We need it to be a place of peace, in a community that is still reeling from a vicious and unprovoked attacked. We need it to show that we, as Americans, will not be cowed by our adversaries into abandoning that which makes us fundamentally Americans. We need it, to build a bridge toward greater harmony. We need it, to prove once and for all, that we are worthy of the sacrifice made by so many to forge this nation. We need this cultural center, because until we can see past our hate, until we can let go of our desire for revenge, until we can stand up and prove that we are better than our enemies, who are so completely intolerant of those things that do not conform to their zealotry, we stand to be dragged down into an infernal abyss. America must show our enemies, as we have so many times in the past, that they are wrong about us, and that their error in judgment will cost them everything, in the end.

Some Say By Fire

Fire can be capricious. It can heat you home... or burn it to the ground. It can provide light and warmth when camping... or reduce the forest to smoking ash. It can be used to cook our food... or to char the innocent into unrecognizability. It can drive away the night... or hasten its approach. What we do with it determines whether it will aid us, or consume us.

Fire has always been the weapon of choice to prove a point, usually that one group has control over another. It was the very first terror weapon, a raging, snarling monster capable of devouring everything that was precious to anyone. When turned from its pedestrian uses of heating and cooking and lighting, it was a formidable enforcer. And still is.

This is no doubt why, in fits of rage, crowds take to fire as an instrument of that rage. The movie stereotype of the villagers wielding pitchforks and torches is not far from the truth, for in our hearts, we know that to apply the power of fire to something is to erase the thing, to make a statement that we will not be controlled or frightened by it. And so, the mad scientist's creation is set ablaze... or a witch is cleansed... or books with contradictory knowledge are placed upon a pyre... or a family is forced to watch a cross burning on their lawn. Yes, fire is the instrument of our anger, and the symbol of the loss of control, for while fire may do our bidding, it is not so easily tamed, and can as easily set about its own work as do ours. To play with fire, is to play with imminent destruction.

Nero fiddles, Rome burns.

There is a movement to mark the next anniversary of September 11th, 2001, by burning copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in protest. There is another movement scheduled for the next day, to burn the Rebel Flag, symbol of the Confederacy, to show certain elements in this country that we are not frightened of them. Suddenly, it is no longer the 21st Century, but the 17th Century, or perhaps the 11th; in any event, in a time for the possibility of communication and conversation, we are reduced to the age-old tactics, as if, somehow, the fire will cleanse rather than scar. What is to be gained in either case, save to inflame passions, to ramp up rhetoric, to reinforce the walls that stand between us? Nothing concrete can be gained by these actions; they are the extension of our primitive animal selves, not the enlightened and thinking species we can be.

If there is ever to be true progress for humanity toward something better, if we ever are to enjoy the fruits of liberty and freedom, then we have to put down the weapons and rein in the dogmas of the past. We must stop giving in to our animal passions, for down that road lies the consumption of our species in an orgy of destruction. Better to be wiped out by an asteroid or solar flare, than to do ourselves in, tearing ourselves apart in our own ignorance and lust for blood.

Let us quench this fire, stanch the flow of intolerance, by showing that we need not fall back upon the mindless behaviors of our ancestors. Let those of us who value society show that we are better than that, that we will not be dragged into the muck that settles to the bottom of our species. We need not heap fuel upon the fire; we can, instead, call forth the rain, and stamp it out. To do so proves that we are ready to move out of the shadows and into the light.

Fear Factory

Fear is a great motivator. It will take the timid, the weak, the ignorant, and the faithless, and whip them into a frenzied mob, easily led by the mountebank willing to stoke them with the fire of inflamed rhetoric and subtle prevarication. It easier to point to the ills of the world and claim they emanate from a source other than the individual, to a person, or group, or government that is callous or unresponsive or traitorous. It is far easier to spread lies and deceit, than to sow seeds of compassion and compromise.

We live in a time where, given the situation in the world, the turmoil we see, and the information so readily available, that the fear mongers and hate baiters can take their messages of discontent and fury to a wider audience, an audience soaked and steeped in the ichor of marketing, which tells them what they should have, what they must do, and how they must not think about things, but "take our word for it." Generation after generation, as education continues to fail to teach the basic skills needed for critical reason and common sense, when parents have children merely because they are told "that's what society/god wants," and we are told we are not good Americans unless we mortgage ourselves to afford bigger houses, cars, and televisions, the idea that the words uttered by anyone should bear closer scrutiny is as foreign a concept as the idea of the tall sailing ship or the horse and buggy.

So, the fear merchants peddle their talking points in the common market, a new and insidious form of Town Crier, who, rather than seeking to inform, is trying to inflame. The crowds gather around their glowing boxes, bombarded by light that does not illuminate, does not educate, but does prevaricate. Facts, even where they are evident, are glossed over as inconvenient, or flawed, or "propaganda." Those who seek to warn the town of the approach of the wolves are merely "trying to scare us." There are no wolves we are told; only sheep with different haircuts. How can they harm us?

The wolves are not the sheep -- we, the Americans, are. Meekly, we accept, without reservations, the fiery oration of others as gospel, checking our curiosity at the door, placing our common sense in abeyance, chalking up any lingering doubts to random thought. We do not question, do not confront, do not interrogate those who seek to tell us how we should act and what we should do and what we should think. We accept that, somehow, their judgment is greater than ours, even though there is nothing upon which to base such a thought. We would be led, en masse, to the slaughter, none the wiser.

If we do nothing else, we must awaken, must set forth with hungry eyes and hungrier minds, to test the words of these purveyors of "truth." Truth in and of itself, is an ephemeral concept, subject to interpretation, but facts are in evidence, capable of rational analysis, and subject to scrutiny. We must ask ourselves the tough questions. Does the thing harm me? Are we as beset as they would make us out to be? Have we lost anything tangible in the way of rights? Where did they come by their information? How credible is it? Have they lied to us before?

Until we decide to loose the chains that fetter us to the unreal world of fear, hate, and ignorance, and soar up to the heights of human intellect, to think for ourselves, and challenge those who simply believe we have no choice but to believe them, we will be forced to muddle around in the dark, forever the sheep to be shorn by those who would buy the wool and burn it, rather than clothe all humanity in it. We can no longer afford to be complacent -- the future of us all depends on it.

Ignorance In The Time Of Knowledge

The oddest part of humanity's march into the 21st Century, a time of global telecommunication and the interchange of knowledge, is the growing prevalence of ignorance in society. Not the simple ignorance of not knowing things, which is the root of curiosity and the quest for answers, but the ignorance of fact and reason, the actual gainsaying of established convention and lines of thought, which were the basis of the very revolutions that brought about the Industrial Age, the Space Age, and the Information Age. The negation of that which is known, that which is verifiable, repeatable, and fundamental to the operation of the universe, is a conundrum; that so many would profess their disbelief in such things so publicly, an enigma.

Now, this is not anything new; human history is replete with such stories, of philosophers challenging conventional wisdom of their age, decrying the intervention of all-too-human gods, or coming up with simple and rational explanations for natural phenomena. Archimedes, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Darwin, Bohr, Einstein... the list of scientists and thinkers who have endured the questioning of their precepts and theories in the face of indisputable evidence or, at the very least, plausibility and potential confirmation through further experimentation, is very long. Those who challenged the status quo, who tore away the curtain to reveal the true operation of the world, separate from the machinations of angels and demons, were reviled in their day, marked as charlatans, and, even when their predictions came true or their theories confirmed, still challenged by those who would not so easily let go their grip on cherished beliefs.

Yet, in an era when so much of what has come before is comfortably ensconced in the pantheon of knowledge, there are those vocal critics who would seek to rewrite the operating system of the universe, to dismiss the operations that are fundamental to its existence, and claim that they know the true intention or methodology of the creator. The look at theories, which are so in name only now, and claim that they are merely "theories," contradictable by "evidence" that is as plain as the nose on your face. What is most astonishing, is how easily that skein of unreason is picked up by the general populace, having apparently been conditioned not to think for themselves, but to regurgitate the missives of others.

The fault lies in ourselves, as does so much of what is wrong in the nation, the world, and the human race. Specifically, in America, education has taken a back seat to so many things. Curricula are still enforced by the States, each with a very different take on what parts of math, science, history, and English are important, constantly changing their criteria, and forcing children into rote memorization of incomplete and often erroneous information, simply because that is what is printed in a text book. The art of teaching is being reduced to ruins in the hands of administrators who are busy collecting the perks of their position, even as teachers are sacrificed on the altar of reduced school budgets and funding. Teachers can no longer teach, but must instead prepare students for unending series of standardized tests, which can no better assess a child's learning ability than an actual teacher. We have slowly taken away the core and fundamental skills of logic, reason, experimentation, and curiosity, and replaced them with pat answers, Internet searches, and performance evaluations.

That we seek to dilute knowledge, can it, prepackage it, and cover it in half-truths and obfuscations, is a reprehensible use of the intellect that humanity has developed over millions of years. While many might shudder to think of themselves descended from apes, they are hardly bothered by the idea that human society is regressing toward their primitive ancestors, by giving up, wholesale, the very advantage that put so much distance between us on the tree of life. That these purveyors of ignorance are given unfettered and unchallenged access to the world, and that there is no hue and cry loud enough to drown them out, may prove to be our epitaph.

As always, hope springs eternal. While the majority may choose to wallow, the edges of humanity continue to move forward, to learn new things, explore new places, and bring us closer to an understanding of the creation of our universe. Science does not seek to replace God, only allow us to read his mind, tease apart the puzzle that has been left for us, and to make our own destiny. In seeking truth and knowledge from the depths of atoms to the distant reaches of the cosmos, we are not forsaking the creator, but delighting in the creation, seeing what a wonderful and marvelous place we live in. If our ultimate goal is to be closer to the source of the all, then science is the light that leads the way. There is no profit in denying the truth or misspeaking the facts; to do so only condemns us to an ignominious end. To broaden our horizons, to spread our minds across the stars and down into the heart of everything, is to enrich us, to let us grow, and to bring us closer to ultimate truth. Isn't that what we want, ultimately?

Hiroshima

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Enola Gay's historic flight, to drop an atomic bomb upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of Hiroshima. In a flash, energy like that found in star, was unleashed over a city, obliterating it and incinerating a large number of its residents, who became mere piles of ash, and leaving still others to suffer the effects of radiation poisoning for decades to come.

A great deal of time and effort has gone into debating the use of the atomic bomb to end the war. Some say it was barbaric and unnecessary; others point to the fanatical zeal of Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the potential horror of an invasion of the Japanese home islands as a good reason to end the war then and there. In a way, it is useless to debate the issue, for it has happened, the events were set in motion, and so many decades removed, the dry words of reports and history books cannot fill us with the urgency, the horror, the blood, and the pain of WWII to more than a peripheral degree. We were not there, at that time, had not suffered through the horror of what seemed like a never-ending succession of fights to the death.

Still, the immensity of this moment, when the most horrible of weapons was unleashed, cannot be over-looked, for it changed the world in ways we could not fathom at the time. It may have ended a hot war quickly and efficiently, but it also triggered a cold war, whose heat lay festering below the ground in silos, in the air aboard strategic bombers, and below the sea in ballistic missile submarines. The world after the end of WWII was a place of high drama, fear, panic, and tension, with the potential destruction of the whole world one flock of geese or one nervous leader away.

Let us pause to remember the needless deaths of Hiroshima, from the standpoint of a war the Japanese need not have fought, and the United States needed to end, but perhaps not in such a way as this. We cannot rewrite the pages of history, undo the moment, resurrect the dead, but we can remember all that came and passed at that moment, and use it as the fuel to vow that we will never allow conflict to attain that level again, and we will strive to whatever lengths we must to maintain peace. Let this anniversary serve as a re-dedication of our efforts to bring humanity together as one, to live in peace and harmony for all time.