Sunday, August 22, 2010

BloggeRhythms 8/22/2010

TNBNT for a change.

That means I can add a bit to yesterday's subject.

This morning as my wife was watching the McLaughlin Group, I glanced at the screen and noticed that the discussion seemed quite heated. When I asked her what was being discussed, she told me is was the Mosque at Ground Zero.

Having watched that show in the past, though not for some time now, I know that the panelists are quite articulate, bright, well-informed people with very strong opinions regarding their positions on whatever subjects are discussed. And, I guess, today's discussion was no exception.

But I was surprised when my wife told me that these panelists, including the likes of John McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan, approached the Mosque discussion believing that the underlying arguments, pro and con, regarding the Mosque are about religion. These guys are much too smart for that. Because I'm not sure that this Mosque location argument has a thing to with religion at all. And that got me thinking about what the issue really is.

Part of the problem in the U.S. today is that very few people know or care much about our history in a specific sense. A world-changing event like World War II is memorialized in movies or TV shows, and veterans still around walk in parades, but as to how and why it happened, is another story and, today, it's little known.

Back then President Roosevelt didn't really want to get involved while the Nazis and Japanese were invading Europe and islands in the Pacific. He believed it wasn't our problem or our war. After all, we were oceans away from those fights. And, perhaps, in many ways he was right. But, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that was the last straw and finally we retaliated.

My point however is, that for quite a long time before our entry to that war there were many early warning signs of what was ultimately coming down the pike. And we just sat back and let it happen because we were the home of free people and free thought and didn't get involved in other people's business, especially their fights. And whether or not any encroachment was really expected here by some, nobody did anything about it until it was almost too late.

Looking back on what caused our entry to WW II, it seems that because we sat on the sidelines, not wanting to get involved in other folks business, our non-participation was mis-construed by the Axis: Germany, Japan and Italy (you know, all those folks who now sell us cars, TV'S, food, clothes and travel tours) as an unwillingness or fear to fight. Of course, the Axis soon learned that we could only be pushed so far before all hell broke loose on them and we broke their spirits, backs, militaries, economies and anything else worth breaking at the time. Then we put it all back together so well that today, they're among the strongest nations in the world.

So, what if in the current situation we're being tested again. To see how far we can be pushed before getting upset. Or perhaps, it's assumed that it doesn't matter if we get upset, we've become pushovers once more. So, it's okay to build a religious site only yards from where we lost two symbols of American ingenuity, homogeneity, success and independence. Of course, I don't know that that's the case, so this is just a "What if?"

But if it isn't a "What if," and instead a world-wide message that two of our proudest symbols have been replaced by another culture's, I think that's a whole different ballgame and one to seriously consider.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

No comments:

Post a Comment