I can no longer be silent while my country is hijacked by crazies.

Topic of the week

Empowerment

Foster individual self-discovery and self-esteem. 

Validate trying, taking healthy risks, and listening to inner truths.

I took some time to visit some fellow Friday Fragmenters last week and was pointed to a fabulous blog post over on Barnmaven's Clean Shavings. The post was regarding the so called "Ground Zero Mosque" (I highly recommend you read the post for your self!) and I was particularly moved by these words in her piece, 

I don't want to have this argument with her. It is heartbreaking to think that someone I know and like can even think about participating in this campaign of hate and lies. But there it is. People I know, people I even like, they may think this way.

I feel this way a lot. I am a go with the flow or don't cause waves sort of gal. When I was in high school I was the class clown. It was a defensive posture. It made it possible for me to espouse all sorts of crazy ideas and if they didn't land well it was ok, I could laugh it off and folks could move on. "Oh that was just Kathy being silly."

I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I even enjoy a spirited discourse but somehow it seems to me that chancing disagreement is a lost art. In school I remember being forced to debate the side of an argument I didn't necessarily agree with just for the experience. The exchange could get heated but at the end of class friendships were not lost.  We still had to live with each other and it wasn't worth the energy to maintain a grudge.

Now here in my grown up life it isn't quite that easy. I have a tight knit group of friends with whom I feel kindred political views and a few old time friends who I can share my special brand of eccentric but I really don't want to go around shocking neighbors or  taking on every old facebook friend who says things with which I completely disagree.

No, I really don't WANT to do it, but I am starting to fear that if I don't speak up my silence will begin to be counted as acceptance. I do not believe every Islamic person is a terrorist, I in fact believe only a crazy few have any hateful designs on America. I feel the racist out cry regarding the NYC Mosque is despicable. My friend Walter summed it up nicely.

Anyone advocating for the curtailing of the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans has already forgotten the internment camps for the Japanese-Americans during World War II, the Anti-Chinese Labor Laws from the 1800s, Anit-Irish Labor Laws, Slavery, Suffrage and so on--and you are a bigot.

Fear mongering by detestable people in the media, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh come immediately to mind, is legitimizing hate. I heard their rantings as crazy talk, certain that reasonable people would not be persuaded but as I write this I learn that friends of friends are being hassled, bricks tossed in their windows all for being suspected of being muslim.  This type of behavior has got to stop. The quiet "busy REASONABLE majority", as Jon Stewart refer's to them need to start talking and fighting back.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rally to Restore Sanity
www.thedailyshow.com
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Our country is founded in tolerance. Tolerance for different religions, tolerance for different cultures, tolerance for different ideas. It is time for the tolerant majority to speak up and keep the extremists from hijacking our country.

I can no longer be silent, how about you?

Next Post: Guess who cut her own hair?

My Thirteen Virtues of Great Parenting are:

Fun, Discipline, Creativity, Love, Wonder, Listening, Curiosity, Compassion, 

Trust, Acceptance, Empowerment, Humility and Flexibility

This week is all about Empowerment. Next week 's topic is Humility.