The Jester

Sick and Tired

We are sick of hearing Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity spout lies and nonsense, quoting each other and stirring up the proverbial s---. These and their ilk decry President Obama as “elitist” even as they rake in the millions. They pretend to speak for the average Joe as they shill for Wall Street. They claim to be the last bastion of free speech as they shout down or hang up on those who challenge their chicanery. They screen their calls and allow only the least articulate of their critics to speak.

And we are tired of hearing otherwise sane and decent people regurgitating the vile spewings of these spinmeisters. Every day several emails are forwarded to me with what I am sure the senders regard as patriotic but which reek of racism.

Let us make ourselves perfectly clear. On September 11, 2001 we were as shocked and disgusted as anyone in America by the horrific events unfolding before the world. We are every bit as angry, every bit as sad as any other American. We wanted, and still want, each and every person responsible for the atrocities of that day to be punished. . And yes, each and every person involved in that plot was Islamic.

But that does not mean that all 1.2 billion Muslims are terrorists, any more than Timothy McVeigh’s terrorist crime means that all Christians are terrorists.

That does not make the Quran an evil book. That does not make torture okay, nor does calling torture “enhanced interrogation techniques” make the practice any less vile. That does not make the epithet “raghead” any less racist than “nigger”, “kike”, “dago”; ad nauseum. The vile things being said about Muslims have been said about Jews and African-Americans and the Irish et al. History teaches us that this is the root of genocide.

And that does not mean that our saying or writing these words make us any less patriotic than anyone else.

Lamar Deal

Barbara Griffin