and we're the pigs
Just finished listening to a story on NPR about a "land use debate" in Texas, but that's putting it very diplomatically. In Texas, apparently, there are no regulations on how you can use your land if you're outside of incorporated city limits. If you own it, you can do anything you want with it.
A muslim group has purchased a lot and plans to build a mosque. A neighbor, feeling suddenly very unhappy with the freewheelin' Texas land-use laws, has come up with a very "clever" vigilante response. There's nothing legal he can do to stop the mosque from being built, so he's doing what any logical, red-blooded, god-loving american would do: he's building a pig-racing track right next to the property line.
He chuckled as he explained to the reporter that the pigs are a big, nasty mess, and they get smellier as they get bigger. Kind of like americans.
Anyway, someone in the community -- maybe the pig-racing guy, maybe not, it's anonymous -- set up a website for neighbors to express their feelings about the mosque safely, ie: where neighbors can babble their racism anonymously. Now the website gets applause from anti-islamist people all over the world. It's scary and disgusting.
Don't we ever learn? Can't we look at history and see that hating a group of people, a whole entire group of people, is a bad idea and leads to bad actions? Can't we look into our own hearts and know that it's wrong to be so meanspirited? I am so disappointed by human beings, every day. We have so many opportunities to be good to each other, and we so often fail. More than fail, we wildly, amazingly, creatively and laboriously fuck-up. We go out of our way to be horrible. Not even the so-called Christmas spirit can fix that kind of problem.
A muslim group has purchased a lot and plans to build a mosque. A neighbor, feeling suddenly very unhappy with the freewheelin' Texas land-use laws, has come up with a very "clever" vigilante response. There's nothing legal he can do to stop the mosque from being built, so he's doing what any logical, red-blooded, god-loving american would do: he's building a pig-racing track right next to the property line.
He chuckled as he explained to the reporter that the pigs are a big, nasty mess, and they get smellier as they get bigger. Kind of like americans.
Anyway, someone in the community -- maybe the pig-racing guy, maybe not, it's anonymous -- set up a website for neighbors to express their feelings about the mosque safely, ie: where neighbors can babble their racism anonymously. Now the website gets applause from anti-islamist people all over the world. It's scary and disgusting.
Don't we ever learn? Can't we look at history and see that hating a group of people, a whole entire group of people, is a bad idea and leads to bad actions? Can't we look into our own hearts and know that it's wrong to be so meanspirited? I am so disappointed by human beings, every day. We have so many opportunities to be good to each other, and we so often fail. More than fail, we wildly, amazingly, creatively and laboriously fuck-up. We go out of our way to be horrible. Not even the so-called Christmas spirit can fix that kind of problem.
posted by reasonably prudent poet at 2:27 PM
2 Comments:
very true that "islam" isn't a "race." i suppose i over-generalized when i used that term, although i think it's hard to ignore the racism that accompanies the fear and hatred of islamic people. i think they're inextricably tied together.
i guess, anonymous, those who follow the faith of islam must be close to inventing their 'special' word for folks hating them for the clothes they wear, the beliefs they have and the rituals they carry out.
o happy day when they get their 'anti-semetism' or 'homophobia' nailed and in the dictionary. then we can truely feel how well our humanity is going.
Post a Comment
<< Home