Mosques

[Limewater]

Ya know I think you're pretty great Lime, but do you ever think you're one of the guys that are always waiting to respond, and not waiting to listen? Not a judgment, just an observation.

Selection bias, imo.

[dsheinem]

So back on topic...

Obama endorses the mosque: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/13/ ... 1&iref=BN1

Did so at a Ramadan dinner at the White House. Good for him.

The loonies are all going apey about it in the comments over there on CNN, and I am sickened by the arrogant ignorance and seething hatred I hear from many of my fellow countrymen. I am also afraid that when this mosque opens some right wing nut job will bomb the place.

I often wonder if living in a period of such overt racism and hatred - against the president, against muslims, against hispanics, against gays, etc. - is anything like what it was like to live in this country before Civil Rights passed...

[Limewater]

I often wonder if living in a period of such overt racism and hatred - against the president, against muslims, against hispanics, against gays, etc. - is anything like what it was like to live in this country before Civil Rights passed...

Sure it's something like it. We still drive cars and drink Coca-cola after all, even if the gas is unleaded and the Coke bottles are plastic. I have a very hard time drawing serious parallels the modern incarnation of the issues you mention and the pre-Civil Rights era, though.

[dsheinem]

I often wonder if living in a period of such overt racism and hatred - against the president, against muslims, against hispanics, against gays, etc. - is anything like what it was like to live in this country before Civil Rights passed...

Sure it's something like it. We still drive cars and drink Coca-cola after all, even if the gas is unleaded and the Coke bottles are plastic. I have a very hard time drawing serious parallels the modern incarnation of the issues you mention and the pre-Civil Rights era, though.

I didn't mean to suggest that anything was the same other than the free flowing racism and hatred found in popular public discourse. I certainly can't recall a period of time in the past 25 years where there was so much anti-hispanic, gay, muslim, etc. rhetoric in the public sphere (or so much "true american" "proud patriot" bullshit either). It seems reminiscent of the open anti-black/pro-white sentiment that I associate with the 50s and early 60s.

[Limewater]

I didn't mean to suggest that anything was the same other than the free flowing racism and hatred found in popular public discourse. I certainly can't recall a period of time in the past 25 years where there was so much anti-hispanic, gay, muslim, etc. rhetoric in the public sphere (or so much "true american" "proud patriot" bullshit either). It seems reminiscent of the open anti-black/pro-white sentiment that I associate with the 50s and early 60s.

I'm about to go to bed and likely won't be around for the next week and a half, so all I can do is snipe and leave. However, I will say that I have seen little to no anti-hispanic rhetoric being thrown around. I don't think it's very honest to equate the anti-illegal immigrant movement with anti-hispanic. Also, I'd say that there was quite a bit more anti-gay rhetoric in the late eighties and maybe even the early nineties, with the rise of AIDS.

I don't really see much more hatred or much more exploitation of patriotism now than at any other time since I've been old enough to pay attention, except maybe the late nineties, when we were more-or-less between wars and the dot-com bubble was rising. Granted, you do have a few years on me in that regard, I believe.

[Jrecee]

The comments on yahoo are hilarious/terrifying as well. Here's a good one:

Idiot Liberals always support crap like this. It makes us WEAK! Anyone who thinks building the mosque ISN'T a political slap-in-the-face move is not in touch with reality.

REAL Americans that actually love their country aren't going to tolerate this.

Go ahead and build it.

Some GOOD Americans will freakin' burn it down. Yeah....I said it!

Burn it down. Yes. Kind of like the world trade center?

I often wonder if living in a period of such overt racism and hatred - against the president, against muslims, against hispanics, against gays, etc. - is anything like what it was like to live in this country before Civil Rights passed...

Sure it's something like it. We still drive cars and drink Coca-cola after all, even if the gas is unleaded and the Coke bottles are plastic. I have a very hard time drawing serious parallels the modern incarnation of the issues you mention and the pre-Civil Rights era, though.

I didn't mean to suggest that anything was the same other than the free flowing racism and hatred found in popular public discourse. I certainly can't recall a period of time in the past 25 years where there was so much anti-hispanic, gay, muslim, etc. rhetoric in the public sphere (or so much "true american" "proud patriot" bullshit either). It seems reminiscent of the open anti-black/pro-white sentiment that I associate with the 50s and early 60s.

Maybe it seems like there's more hatred going on right now, but I think it's just a matter of so many issues coming to light. We're making progress, and whenever that happens, people who are against this progress come out of the woodwork. These racists and homophobes haven't had to speak up so much because the people they hated were deprived of rights. Now that gays are getting close to getting gay marriage, a black man is president, and "terrorists" are free to practice their religion, these people are having to make themselves heard. But they're doing so in a world where we've moved on from these petty issues (or are at least trying to)

[Ack]

Now if you all could just get over all the South bashing, maybe we'd be getting somewhere.

[Luke]

Now if you all could just get over all the South bashing, maybe we'd be getting somewhere.

Truth is, I've never seen more racism than in the South. It deserves the bash. That in mind, I can only compare it to the Midwest.

[Ack]

Now if you all could just get over all the South bashing, maybe we'd be getting somewhere.

Truth is, I've never seen more racism than in the South. It deserves the bash. That in mind, I can only compare it to the Midwest.

Yeah, but you folks make it seem like I'm out cross burning when I'm not playing video games. I mean, from some of the stuff I've seen on here, I'm apparently some cheap beer-swilling Nascar-fanatic Klansman with a third grade education and three teeth balls deep in my sister.

Yes, I've seen racism in the South. I've seen white on black, black on white, white on asian, asian on white, asian on black, black on asian, latino on white, latino on black, black on latino, white on latino, latino on asian, asian on latino, so on and so forth. I've also seen the horror and the aftermath of racism, where people come together and rally against it. Growing up in a state that was torn apart from racial strife 40 years ago, I've also seen the positive and negative response to it. I've walked down the same streets where years before people were getting beaten just for wanting to drink from the same water fountain, stood in churches once blown apart by bombs over the color of the congregation, and walked throw the doorway a governor once stood in to stop black students from attending.

Apparently all of this has left some sort of black mark on my soul, where I and all the people from where I come from must be criticized and ridiculed solely because I happen to have grown up in an area still plagued by the repercussions of years of instituted racism.

I was born in North Carolina, raised in Alabama, and take great pride in where I'm from. I understand the problems my home faces, and for long periods of time I have wanted nothing more than to run away from it and never look back. I've seen firsthand the hypocrisy of the churches you all seem to love to insult so much, and I've also seen the love and charity of these organizations and how they come together to help those in the worst of times. As a matter of fact there will be a gathering of church congregations tomorrow to help provide food for those who are unable to work over the Gulf oil crisis, regardless of the color of their skin. You want to bash them and the region they're from, fine, but realize they're doing a whole hell of a lot more good than you are.

I also understand the struggles facing my state and the battles over how to solve them. My state's government lacks funding for nearly anything, our schools have no money, and our municipalities are struggling to take loans to make up for the lacking revenue. Along the coast businesses are dying out because for all the help BP says they're giving, they haven't helped large sections of places. The claim they haven't rejected a single claim is true, because instead they're holding many of them in limbo. Whole industries are dying out down here over this mess, and nobody knows what it's doing to our environment.

We've got problems and we know it. What we don't need is you all making snarky remarks from your high horses about what we're like and how terrible we all are down here. You want to talk about how terrible all this racism towards Arabs and all this anti-Muslim sentiment, and then some of you turn right around and insult me and my own for some of the same shit you were just self-righteously condemning.

And for the record, I hardly ever drink alcohol, I hate Nascar, I went to one of the best high schools in the US, I hold two degrees from respected universities, I have all my teeth, I've never even seen a Klan rally, and I don't have a sister, but I can God damn guarantee I wouldn't fuck her if I did.

[AppleQueso]

You know good and well that when someone says "the south" they don't mean "every single individual from the south".

I'm from Texas for crying out loud and I take no offense to any of those sorts of comments.