Them

Last week was ominous. This, I thought as I listened to the madness about the Islamic cultural center, is what it must feel like to witness logic going straight out the window and replaced with tribalism. For the past year and a half, I’ve listened to corporate criminals blame every problem this country faces on “illegals,” I’ve listened to the right wing talkies call for the head, more or less, of the judge who wrote the decision declaring California’s attempt at legalized homo hatred unconstitutional, I’ve endured, with great sadness, the media in this country become little more than the U.S. military’s PR department. I’ve done all this, I’m proud to say, without throwing a heavy object, without resuming my drinking career, without assaulting anyone physically or verbally, without gaining or losing a substantial amount of weight, or sleep.

Last week was a challenge. The September 11 crowd is offended about the cultural center – referred to as “the mosque” – that may end up situated a few blocks from the grounds where the towers known as the World Trade Center were knocked over by airplanes piloted by men who were members of the religion that now wants to operate the cultural center. And when this gang gets offended, the country sits up and takes notice. Not only has the country noticed, people have settled into the storyline as if it were their favorite recliner. The facts notwithstanding, the tone of the conversation, if it can be called that, was nauseating. You can dress up the language any way you’d like, but the message coming across the air waves at my house last week was clear: Muslims aren’t real Americans, they’re the enemy, and they are not to be trusted.

One of the most disturbing tid-bits from last week was the president’s response to it. Poll data released revealed that the percentage of people in this country who believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim has actually increased since he was elected. I still cannot figure out the timing of the poll, but his response was to underscore the fact that he’s a Christian, which is disappointing in my opinion, and then go on to talk about his daily dose of scripture and his regular prayer sessions, which is ridiculously disappointing. What a cartoon character he’s become, scurrying around the White House in fear, hiding behind some biblical monkey business to prove to the Super Christians that he’s not to be feared – he’s one of them. There’s a goddamn country that needs to be run here, by the way.

And then Harry Reid. In the same spirit that Joe Lieberman threw the Clintons over the cliff at their most vulnerable point in order to curry favor with the moralists of the day during the mercifully brief era of Congressional righteousness, Harry Reid promptly parted ways with the president on the issue of the cultural center. This sort of behavior is one of the main reasons I have never registered as a Democrat: one of the things at which they seem most talented is stabbing one another in the back for very short-term returns (i.e., elections). It’s also one of the main reasons Democrats don’t accomplish much unless they’re safely in the majority; they’re too busy offing one another. I don’t care if Harry Reid’s opponent is an escapee from the psychiatric hospital – I hope he loses, and badly.

As disturbing as last week was, it did end on a good note. I felt better after a bit of Friday night television for two reasons: first, people are still allowed to speak; and second, a lot of them expressed opinions that aligned with mine. And most of those people, much to my surprise, were Republicans. The governor of New Jersey, for starters, said that it was irresponsible of politicians to use this as a political football. W.’s former speechwriter, who filled in for David Brooks on the PBS NewsHour Friday night, called the argument that Islam is incompatible with American pluralism “deeply dangerous.” And on Washington Week, one of the regular guests could barely contain his disgust in explaining his magazine’s (Time) poll that piggy-backed the one concerning Obama’s religion: not only do many believe the president is a Muslim, many, many people in this country believe that a Muslim should not be allowed to serve as president or sit on the supreme court. Gwen Ifill asked the guy what he believed caused people to hold these opinions, and he answered, in a beautifully succinct way, “ignorance.”

Speaking of which, my final source of week-end comfort was – are you ready for this? – W. himself. I was liquored up for all but the last few months of his reign, and – like my father – I could not, would not listen to that man speak. The sound of his voice hurt my fillings. So imagine how dumbfounded I was to hear a clip of W. speaking right after September 11, 2001, reiterating and repeaterating – in his own unique way – that people of Muslim faith are not the enemy, and to judge them as such would be un-American.