Koran Burning Is Cynical Ploy. Obama New Stimulus Not Enough.
September 7th, 2010
Dr.Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance today said on Rachel Maddow's show that in a meeting with Attorney General Holder, Holder said the burning of the Koran by Preacher Terry Jones is "both ignorant and dangerous".
Religious leaders today came out with a press conference condemning anti-Muslim rhetoric and demonstrations.
This is from a Christian Science Monitor Article on the event.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/Vox-News/2010/0907/CNN-covered-interfaith-call-to-oppose-Koran-burning.-Who-didn-t
"The Islamic Society of North America organized a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington where leaders from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths argued against what organizers called "an atmosphere of fear and intolerance" toward Islam.
C-SPAN and CNN carried the interfaith press conference live. Fox News Channel had no coverage, but instead had commentator Lou Dobbs holding forth on President Obama and the "sad isolated state this president has put himself in."
Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, which has an anti-Islamic philosophy, told the Associated Press he would go ahead with plans to burn the Koran this weekend to protest the 9/11 terrorist attacks. General David Petraeus, the top US general in Afghanistan, has said the Koran burnings could endanger American troops.
"Images of the burning of a Koran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan – and around the world – to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said in an email to the AP."
I am opposed to book burning in principal. I am a book lover. But it seems to me that it is clear that the right wing in the USA is trying to rile up the American public into a frenzy of anti-Muslim hate. This is taking advantage of the general anger at the state of the economy and redirecting that anger at a minority group that is an easy target because of the association of Muslims with the events on 9-11. No matter how many times Muslims in the mainstream tell us that they do not endorse terrorism, any more than most Christians do not endorse the terrorism that went on in Northern Ireland, there are still those in the radical right and even cynical Republican operatives who know that there are meatheads out there who are just looking for an easy target to blame for the problems the country faces. It is easier to blame Muslims or immigrants and not face the fact that most of the problems the USA faces are the result of decisions made by the Republicans and some Democrats over the last three decades or so.
I am opposed to all racist attacks. It certainly is the right of that pastor to burn the Koran, but it is decidedly not a smart move for the American People. It simply provides ammunition in the long run for the Al Queda's of the world. There may be a short term gain in rallying an increasingly angry percentage of the American people but this manipulation of people's feelings of there being something wrong with the world, will only lead to more death, destruction and ignorance.
Obama needs to come up with a dramatic job improvement plan. More corporate tax cuts are not the answer. Robert Reich has a pretty decent argument against them.
This is from his column on the subject.
http://robertreich.org/post/1079916360/why-obama-is-proposing-whopping-corporate-tax-cuts-and
"The reason businesses aren't investing in new plant and equipment has nothing to do with the cost of capital. It's because they don't need the additional capacity. There isn't enough demand for their goods and services to justify it. Consumers aren't buying because they're trying to come out from under a huge debt load, including mortgage debt; they have to start saving because their nest eggs are worth substantially less; and they've lost or are worried about losing jobs and pay."
I am no economist but it make sense to me that what we need are payroll tax cuts which might be in the works. Infrastructure development is fine, but jobs are what we need and to get jobs. Consumer spending is one way to prime the pump, assuming people spend the extra money that comes with payroll tax cuts. Another way is to start hiring people to do those green jobs Obama has talked about. A massive spending program on high speed trains, insulating and putting solar panels on every roof in America or building large wind farms in the desert and off shore like in Europe. Building solar cities like they are doing in China. These are the kinds of things we need. Not half measures.
No comments:
Post a Comment