How Can Anyone...

[Kathy_Baratta]

...call themselves a patriotic, God-fearing American and do what that nut-job, so-called "pastor" Terry Jones is proposing with his, "Burn a Koran," day when no less a person than General Petraeus has beseeched them to NOT DO IT due to the increased intensity of the danger to our soldiers.

Fact is, it's not just GI's that will have a neon target everywhere they go but also any known American in any other country.* Hell. Even this country. Theo Van Gogh was murdered on a busy street in one of the most liberal, socialist nations in the western world - over a movie he made.

I know our Constitution allows for it but just because you can do something, does that mean you should? Is this really who we now are?  

KB
* Yes. I have a very personal interest in this. Even though I no longer have any sons in the military, my niece (my favorite, BTW      ) works for the State Department and she is now serving a present commission in Brussells, Belgium. And she's pregnant again. Which reminds me. She hopes she gets to stay over in Europe (especially Brussells) until well after the baby is born due to the fact that, according to her, the pre-natal care, hospital (free, of course) and day care there are unparalleled here regarding cost and quality.

[Ginger_Hoffmeier]

The nut-job pastor might have been looking for his 15 minutes of fame and some free publicity for his church. Unfortunately, he got it.

[Pat Garaffa]

Personally, I wouldn’t do it just because it seems so wrong and insulting on every level.  Burning the book makes no sense to me and he shouldn't do it.  And that holds true for any religious tome regardless of my beliefs.  

On the flip side, he should not be forced to respect it because his rights to free speech allow him to disrespect it any way he wants.  He can burn it, line a bird cage or use it as toilet paper.  Same with any other “good book” or their offshoot.   I don’t agree with him but I can’t deny him the right to do it.  
  
I don't believe he should burn it for one simple reason – this isn’t the time or place for such a demonstration and he will instigate more anger.  He could easily put us or our troops in harms way.  

My bigger concern is the double standard.  If he planned to burn a bible or a flag he wouldn't even make the evening news!  And if he did, would he suffer the same wrath?  I think not.  

So is it our cherished free speech?  Or is it respect for the book?  Or is it respect for THIS book only while the others are regularly tossed in garbage trucks and incinerators?  I believe it’s none of the above and it’s more a fear of retaliation.  I think most feel our arms are twisted behind our backs until we scream “uncle”.  We are forced to respect one book but not the others.  And if you don’t you get shot, stoned, beheaded, etc.  

So again, our rights and beliefs have been trampled by those with the guns.  

[Joe Parente]

Hey, I got an idea!  


Let him burn the Koran, and let them built the muslim community center two blocks from the WTC.

Is is a free country, after all.

Oh, and if you're worried about retaliation against our troops, then maybe those boys and girls should be here instead of occupying two countries half a world away to control their natural resources for "our" corporations (a.k.a. "American Interests")?

And maybe our corrupt government should stop supporting oppressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, so the people over there have even less reason to hate us. Oh, and by the way, for the first 20 or so years of his reign, we gladly supported Saddam Hussein too, during the time he "gassed his own people".

Ya know... maybe people of all faiths and races really could get along if the greedy, rich scumbags who run the world stopped raping it and pitting us against each other for their profit.  

[Kathy_Baratta]

Hey, I got an idea!  


Let him burn the Koran, and let them built the muslim community center two blocks from the WTC.

Is is a free country, after all.

Oh, and if you're worried about retaliation against our troops, then maybe those boys and girls should be here instead of occupying two countries half a world away to control their natural resources for "our" corporations (a.k.a. "American Interests")?

And maybe our corrupt government should stop supporting oppressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, so the people over there have even less reason to hate us. Oh, and by the way, for the first 20 or so years of his reign, we gladly supported Saddam Hussein too, during the time he "gassed his own people".

Ya know... maybe people of all faiths and races really could get along if the greedy, rich scumbags who run the world stopped raping it and pitting us against each other for their profit.  

Joe is absolutely right - on all points. My point is that even though our government sees the soldiers as "lines on the map," we civilians see them as our sons and daughters. My point was, why go out of the way to put them in more danger than necessary. I've given up on seeing them all come home right away but we don't need to make where they are any more dangerous than it already is.

KB

[Joe Parente]

Speak for yourself, Kathy. I'll never give up on them coming home immediately, if not sooner.

I don't buy that "We can't just leave" crap. We just we in, right? Why can't we just leave?

[Kathy_Baratta]

Speak for yourself, Kathy. I'll never give up on them coming home immediately, if not sooner.

I believe I did, dear. What part of "I've given up," gave you the impression I was attempting to speak for you or anyone else for that matter?  

KB

[Joe Parente]

Well, I was just making sure... 

[Tim OBrien]

Joe,
The" boys and girls" you so casually made mention of should not be the target of your anger and sarcasm.  They are in fact our neighbors and family members.  They are our sons and daughters and the dads and moms of our kids.  They put themselves in harms way and deserve our respect and thanks for their service to this country.  I would like to see all of them home safe and reunited with their families who miss them and worry about them every day.    I am glad you feel the same way.     We should focus on bringing them back home as soon as possible.   

As for the book burner, that type of blind hatred has been around for a while.  It seems to be built into the species.    
I am very worried for my friends and family who are over there now if he pulls that stunt.  Hopefully, he will not go through with it. 
Tim O.

[Joe Parente]

Tim, they're not my target, the rich fat bastards who put them in harm's way for their profits are my target.

Yes, we should focus on bringing them home. Unfortunately the powers that be want them there to keep the oil profits flowing into their pockets.

[Thomas Jennings Jr.]

I agree with joe.

Let him burn the Koran(the less attention we give him, the better), let people build their mosque, and bring the men and women home. It is a free country!

[Jackie Everitt]

Unfortunately, I had thought of this too late ---- If all the media outlets ignored him he would have gone away.  I thought of this last night but realized I did not have enough time to start any type of campaign. 

The good news is he got his fame and someone put his brains back in his head (what little he has) and he has now cancelled this.

I am completely against the Muslim Community Center in that location - I am one of those people who feel that by building the center there they are saying " We came, we saw, we killed, now we build and take over."  Yet on the same note I would have no problem with it being built somewhere else.

[Joe Parente]

Jackie, the people building the community center aren't the same people who flew planes into the Trade Center. Some of them lost loved ones that day too.

By the way, it is a free country and you're entitled to your opinion, but they're also entitled to build this thing where ever they want and the preacher was entitled to burn all the books he wanted to.

You're right, the media makes it worse but then again, that's their job.   

[Pat Garaffa]

This is just another double standard. 

Peaceful Muslims continue to claim that we should not challenge the entire religion over a few radical Islamic fundamentalists.  And I agree 100%.  Tim McVey was a nut and he doesn't represent all of us.  He just represents other nuts.  Same with the ultra-Christians who bomb abortion clinics or the anti-Americans who burn flags.   

But now most of Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East wants to rise up and hurt ALL Americans because of one radical Christian Minister who wants to burn their Quran. 

Isn't this the same thing?  They catagorize an entire country/religion over the antics of one pastor and find this is acceptable?  And they are burning our flags and bibles as we speak.  Yet we are attacked much worse, make the same claim and somehow - we are evil? 

He threatened to burn their book and that is cause for an escalated holy war.  In fact, they'll be pissed off and attack us whether he burns it or not and the threat alone was enough to escalate emotions.  And yet, they burned our buildings, killed our citizens and we are suppose to stay silent and embrace them.  In fact, lets build a Mosque Community Center where the buildings fell.  And then we'll go put up a shrine to Kamikaze pilots alongside the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.   

I don't agree with what is happening here but these double standards are more damaging than anything.   

   

[Joe Parente]

Of course it's the same thing Pat.

IMHO, both sides here are comprised of bigoted religious nutcases of varying degrees.

And you're forgetting that "we" (as in the US military and covert agencies along with other countries in our influence, like Israel) have been burning their buildings and killing them for far longer.

Are they supposed to stay silent and embrace us?

"We" overthrew several democratically elected governments in Muslim countries and are actively supporting dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places in the Middle East. Do you think the people over there don't know that? They're not as clueless as Americans are in general.

The real double standard is that the "leaders" (crooks) in charge of us are getting away with robbery and murder and we're too clueless to do anything about it. Once again, the elites rob us poor people and set us against each other.