Generally Speaking

I like broad generalizations because they usually piss people off and it forces them to form a hasty opinion. Usually after vocalizing those opinions they will reflect on what they just said and give even more thought to their opinion and maybe so something other than opine.

All Christians are narrow minded and are going to beat me down for using the word 'piss' in the second sentence along with this sentence, and at least one more time before this generalization is finished. That is fine. But you need to come to terms with a God who allowed a prophet to cook over fecal matter and let this make it into the Old Testament: 1Kings 16:11 “And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, [that] he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.”

It was painfully obvious this week that broad generalizations are alive and well in our world. Saturday marked the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on our country. This week also showed us how the idiots and narrow minded can monopolize the media and create more hostility in an already hostile environment.

Reverend Terry Jones, a pastor of a tiny congregation became the foot in mouth spokesperson for all Christianity this week when he announced that his church was going to have a Quran burning on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Not only did he make all Christians look like idiots, he snatched Pat Robertson's platform from under his feet. To be fair I do not know what Pat's thoughts on this whole issue are, but I am sure it involves assassins and fiery judgment. Reverend Jones did what most loud mouths do and backed away from his plans after he felt the heat. Now, if Reverend Jones had gone through with it I would have still thought he was an idiot, but I would have admired him for standing by his convictions. Now he's just a weenie idiot.

On the anniversary of the attacks I worked. I was working on a water well in rural Illinois on the day of the attacks. As I was reflecting on the events of that day I came to the realization that, up until that day, I did not really give any thought to Islam, Muslims or terrorists. Yet after that day it seemed that we all had it in our heads that all Muslims are terrorists. All of a sudden we are all experts on this group of people. And all of our assumptions stem from the actions of a few extremists.

We saw this at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic when all of a sudden some extreme fundamentalists claimed that the disease was a gay disease. Again, another broad generalization based on half truths and little fact brought to us by the ill informed lunatics with an agenda of hate.

So, nine years later, are we any less safe? Are we more paranoid? Are convenience stores and taxi cabs blowing up? No... We are all living life, paying bills, raising kids, and getting older. We know more about Muslims now than we did nine years ago. We know that radical fundamentalists are everywhere, in every religion and society, and that they are without question idiots...Will they ever leave us?

Probably not..

I really need to do something about these idiots that are supposedly speaking for me.