Ignorance Beyond Measure

I happen to listen to a lot of talk radio while driving.  A lot of what I listen to is from pundits who usually I agree very little with and in fact think to be highly dangerous people* at times.  But they do serve an important purpose:  they're the political faction out of power and must serve as the watchdogs of those in power.  Sadly most of their "watchdogging" is brining up ridiculous non-issues like criticizing the President for golfing too much.  Even so, occasionally they do have good points, but you should listen with a very critical ear, as you should with all political commentary - especially my own.

It was while listening to the conservative view of things that the commercials came on.  It was at this point that I heard a particular ad that truly infuriated me.  It was a campaign ad for Carl Paladino, a prospective Republican candidate for Governor of New York.  Paladino is currently running in the Republican primary against Rick Lazio, the guy who lost against Hilary Clinton for Senator back in 2000.  The polls don't look good for either of them - the Democratic candidate, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is winning by a margin so wide that I think it might technically qualify as murder.  So I'm not surprised that "businessman" (as the ads call him) Paladino is going to try something wild.  In this attack ad, he went ahead and actually threatened to use the power of eminent domain - governmental seizure of property without the owner's concept - to tear down the Cordoba House and place a war memorial in its place.

For those a bit ignorant on this issue, the Cordoba House is a Muslim community center open to people of all faiths built in the purpose of bridging the vast divide between Western culture and the all-too-radicalized Muslim faith.  It is being built by the Cordoba Initiative, a moderate Muslim organization which bases itself educated Americans that not all Muslims are lunatic Jihadists who throw acid in the faces of poor Afghani girls (read some of their articles if you have doubts).  This is exactly the sort of cultural discussion we need to be having right now:  the War on Terrorism** isn't a clash of civilizatoins, its a clash of the world order against a fringe group of dangerous criminals. However the Cordoba House has one issue:  its being built two blocks from Ground Zero.

So when finally an attempt at cultural reconciliation is being made, the floodgates open and in come the pundits with all kinds of complaints. The Cordoba House, named for the Spanish city of Cordoba, a major regional center of Islamic-ruled Spain in the eighth century and a model of interfaith communities, has now been renamed by Sarah Palin and others as "the 9/11 Mosque".  Ignoring the generally positive connotations of the building, these people have been criticizing the building as being threatening to the memory of the victims of 9/11 - quite a few of whom were practicing Muslims themselves murdered with just as much cool blood as those of the other faiths.  Some even suspect that the Cordoba Initiative is being funded by international terrorist organizations or might be using this building as some kind of "political" statement, essentially showing off Islam's victory by not just knocking down a symbol of American economic power but by building a mosque right on the ashes.  There's such an air of fear and ignorance surrounding this issue that its downright frightening.  Much more elegant people than myself have already gone out of their way to defend this exercise of our cherished First Amendment rights.

So for Carl Paladino to tap into this fearful current to try to gain a few points in the polls (gotta love those polls) isn't exactly something that surprises me.

First of all, Carl Paladino is supposedly against the large size of the government.  Despite being a democrat from 1974 to 2005, most of his political positions are against New York's "welfare state", hoping to cut back on government programs and limit its size.  By tapping into the conservative movement, he is giving implicit approval of the Tea Party-style libertarian ideals (he's also trying unsuccessfully to court the Tea Partiers).  But whatever libertarian credits he might have can be thrown right out by his much-publicized plan to use eminent domain to steal Cordoba's land and build a war memorial.

It goes farther than Paladino and his crackpot plan, but this entire conservative line against Cordoba House hardly has much of theme of individual freedoms to it.  The Cordoba Initiative is paying their own money to build their dream, are moving through every bit of local law to have their proposal approved, and have worked tirelessly to cure the very kind of acrimony that the pundits have unleashed upon them.  If Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich were to have their way, any organization anywhere in the country would have their land taken based upon the whim of a scared majority.  If the government or those in power do not like your movement, they'll take everything you have away and give you a check for your trouble.

I don't know about Palin, but in my America, we tolerate every form of dissent as long as it is down within the confines of the law.  If the Nazis want to demonstrate, they can.  If the Klu Klux Klan wants to have a meeting, they can.  If a pundit wants to act like a complete moron on national television, they're perfectly free to.  We even let the most evil people in America, the Westboro Baptist Church continue onward without government harassment - these are all values we should take pride in.  This Cordoba House is not a celebration of the attack on 9/11, it isn't "Osama bin Ladin's 'Death to America' Museum of Jihad Wankery".  I could understand the opposition if this organization legitimately wanted to trample the memory of those murdered in the World Trade Center attacks, but this movement works for the exact opposite values.  Osama bin Ladin or his henchmen do not speak for the entirety of the world's second largest faith, and we should not believe that they do any more than Fred Phelps speaks for Christianity or Yigal Amir speaks for Judaism.

If we're ever going to win this war against Jihadism, we aren't going to do it by blocking the attempts of moderates to start a dialog.  And we're definitely not going to win by letting our fears decide our policy.

Essentially what I'm saying here is three fold:  1) if you believe in libertarian ideals - you should let them build the Cordoba House, 2) if you believe in individual freedom - let them build the Cordoba House, and 3) if you don't want the terrorists to win - let them build the Cordoba House.

When its finally built, I'll be sure to visit.  Maybe Paladino can come with me.  He'll have a lot of free time by then since there's no way in Hell he's ever going to be governor.

ツ

--------------------------------------
* I can't, however, listen to Mark Levin.  He sounds like a cranky old man and for that reason alone should be nowhere near radio.  But its worse than that:  he's always so angry.  Chill, dude.  You have a cantankerous voice already, yelling just makes you seem like an eighty-year-old screaming at his Filipino maid for serving him over-salted tomato soup.

** I'm not sure if the United States' current war still is "the War on International Terrorism" like George W. Bush used to call it.  Rhetorically the media have since moved on to talking about "the Iraq War" and "the War in Afghanistan".  Somebody should clear this up.  Wars usually end one of three ways:  victory, defeat, or draw.  This one seems to have ended by simply changing the nomenclature.