Patriotism and Rank Jack-Assery

I understand patriotic people. I don’t understand people who claim others are not because they don’t show their patriotism in the exact same way as they do… that is just rank jack-assery.

I know exactly where I was when the planes hit the towers in New York… sleeping. My partner, on the other hand, was listening to the radio at work when all this started to happen, as he worked the graveyard shift at the time, and I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been to be listening to all this take place as it was happening. Naturally, he called me to find out more, which on our local stations was barely a blip on their radar until the second plane struck. Of course, by this time two other planes had crashed and it wouldn’t be long before the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

My partner desperately tried to talk me out of going to work, even going so far as calling them himself, but being The Most Evil Corporation in the World, they wouldn’t allow it. Of course, being one of the only retailers open for business that day, they brought in the big bucks, so the strategy paid off for them. Looking back, there was really no reason to freak out as we are on the west coast, but at the time there was no way of knowing that these attacks were all targeted to specific east coast sites.

So when I hear of people claiming that if we don’t fight back by declaring a war on Islam and every Muslim, or I hear of people shouting that the government shouldn’t allow the building of a Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero, we as Americans are being unpatriotic and doing a grave disservice to those who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, I want to scream that is the most un-American response. I do, however, find it ironic that these are the same people who claim the government has too big of a role and wish to shrink the power it has. Must be something funny in the tea they’re drinking. Or perhaps they feel that if they disguise their blatant racism under the semblance of patriotism nobody will notice. A lot of it is the fear of the unknown, and so in that case, pick up a copy of the Quran and make your own decisions. You’ll likely want to have a copy of your Bible to compare, and may even be surprised by the similarities they share.