Be Civil, Will You!?

My dear friend, Craig, has invited me to a reception on the current atmosphere in politics and how it has become, to put it lightly, rather uncivilized.

Follow this link to read about it. The Beacon Journal has been running articles lately about civility and, I have to tell you, I'm interested.

Below are some of my thoughts about politics of late and the mud slinging that has become common place.

1. Politics is serious business. The decisions that our leaders make affect our lives in very noticeable ways. How much we make, whether we can buy a house, our health, just to name a few. But the way our government is run and how races are run, you'd think they were all in junior high gym class locker room.

Name calling, slandering, misleading information, or just outright lying is the new norm. At least no one is getting caned anymore but hey, that might make a come back soon!

2. It has become this way because we have allowed it to. We, the people, vote them into office. And I can tell you, they run hateful (not "negative", let's call it what it is) ads because they work. If the first guy that ran a hateful ad didn't get elected, do you think they'd still be running them? Of course not!

In today's reality show like political arena, people love to see the infighting, the wrangling, and the back stabbing. Every word that is spoken is analyzed and an opinion formed on it. If he's "your guy", you defend it. If he's "the other guy", then you attack and point out how this obviously shows how dumb/unqualified they are.

We want an 8th grade blood bath and that's what they give us.

3. The lies. Oh the lies. Lying has become the norm and bending the truth in ways that would make a gymnast jealous has become a regular occurrence. There are whole websites that exist purely to help one sift through all the B.S.

When did lying become okay? When did we come to expect it? Why do we allow it to happen? We'll write our senator about a piece of legislation that we think might affect our pay check, but when they lie through their teeth and we know it? We let it slide because it's "politics as usual".

I'm excited for this forum and to see where it goes. All is not lost, I hope.

Rev.

Muslim Movie Riot

If you follow the news like me (and then wonder why you do), then I'm sure you've heard all about the "Innocence of Muslims" movie and the current fall out in Libya, Egypt, and other parts of the Muslim world. All around, this is a tragedy.

There's a lot of talk in weird conservative circles that Islam is inherently a violent religion, and that every time someone insults their religion, the Muslims riot and people are killed. I can see why they believe that because, well, it's true. In the last few years, we've seen people killed over cartoons and movies that depict Muhammad in a bad light. Cartoons and movies!

But to simply look at the violence and say "Look at how violent Islam is!" is to over simplify the issue. The impetus of these riots have several causes, one of which I think is regardless of culture or religion and more to do with poverty and desperation.

Let me lay out my line of thought and how I came to this conclusion.

First, I started to look at the places where people are rioting. Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Muslim countries, all of them. But why not other countries with large Muslim populations, like India and Indonesia? You've probably already guessed the answer. Libya, Egypt, and Yemen are countries that have more recently had revolutions. People there are poor, broke, and desperate. I'll go out on a limb and say that these countries, only having recently established governments, aren't thriving and aren't being ruled by law. The people there are are broke and confused and are looking for a scapegoat.

Think pre-Nazi Germany, where the people, broke and desperate for stability, were all too ready to accept a fascist regime and the Jews as the source of all their problems.

Muslims in the US and Europe aren't protesting in the streets. Why? They have something to lose. Their jobs. Their families. Their stability.

Second, I started to think about other major riots and their causes. The first one that came to mind were the LA Riots of 1992. Six days of utter chaos in a major US city. The reason? The acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King.

Compare the riots in Egypt and Libya with those in LA and you'll see some striking similarities.

South Central LA in 1992 (in 2012?) was no Disney Land. High unemployment and poverty, like in Egypt and Libya, make for a particularly potent powder keg. People with no job, no future and nothing to lose. All one needs is a match big enough to light it. In this case, an unfavorable verdict in a police brutality case.

Another, the New York Draft Riots of 1863 (for the movie folk, this is the one that's in the Gangs of New York). Lincoln needed troops for the Civil War and decided a draft was a good idea. Every man fight for the Union! Right? Oh, but if you have $300, you can get out of it.

The poor classes, obviously, could not afford the $300 to get out of it. This lead to major resentment of the rich and, of course, to riots. But since there were no rich folk around to harass, they turned on the people we were supposedly fighting for in this war - black people. Three days of chaos in New York City.

Take some time to dig a little deeper and I'm sure you'll find more similarities. I'm sure there are more examples both currently and in modern history.

People, when desperate and broke, with nothing to lose, are easily guided and misled to riot. They're looking for easy answers to usually very complicated problems. They lash out at people that are easy to spot (Jews, black people, Koreans) and that are minorities.

My plea is that when looking the current ails of the world, don't be tempted to over simplify the situation. Take a moment to look at who these people are and why they are doing this.

To be clear, I believe this explains peoples actions but it doesn't excuse them .Murder is murder. Hate is hate. Use your head. Don't follow the crowd.

Rev.