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Gandalf Grey
Guest
A Halloween Scare
By Walter Brasch
Created Oct 30 2007 - 8:36am
There are a lot of scary things in the world.
There's the "fun-scary"-kids who dress up as clowns, monsters, or fairy
princesses once a year to get a month's supply of candy, which they'll
finish off by morning.
There's scary movies, from "Jaws" to "Friday the 13th" to-well-"Scary
Movie."
The murder mystery genre-in books, TV, and film-can scare even the least
gullible. What's even scarier is that there were about 1.4 million violent
crimes last year; about 17,000 of them were murders, about 89 percent from
firearms, according to the FBI.
Poverty, the deterioration of the environment, and Dick Cheney are all
scary.
But the scariest of all is ignorance, hatred, and bigotry, wrapped within
the cloak of fear.
This past week, along with a mini-mail list of about 60, I received an
e-mail from a friend. She's a nice lady, relatively bright, and active in
community affairs. The e-mail has been around for several years, but is
refreshed every year between Halloween and Christmas. As is custom,
thousands who receive it forward it to thousands of others who are asked to
boycott stamps that honor Muslim holidays. The first lines of the e-mail are
bold. "How ironic is this??!!" it screams at us. "They don't even believe in
Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp . . ." The
graphics-laden e-mail displays a 37-cent postage stamp. The rest of the
e-mail, all in bold type and colors, tells us that we are supposed to
remember the "MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103," the "MUSLIM bombing of
the World Trade Center in 1993," and the "MUSLIM" bombings of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia and American embassies in Africa, the U.S.S. Cole,
and 9/11.
We are told not only to "remember to adamantly and vocally boycott this
stamp," but that buying this stamp "would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors." We are
urged to forward the e-mail to "every patriotic American you know."
The stamp, according to the U.S. Postal Service, was issued to commemorate
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, considered by Muslims as the two most important
festivals in their calendar year. The calligraphy in the center of the stamp
translates literally as "blessed festival," or more loosely as, "May your
religious holiday be blessed." The stamp was first issued on Sept. 1, 2001,
and then reissued in 2002, 2006, and in September this year to reflect
postage increases.
Although the Post Office each year issues a stamp to honor Christmas, it
also issues a non-denominational holiday stamp. It also issues stamps to
honor Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
Those who write and forward the e-mails of intolerance don't understand, and
probably never will, that while some Muslim extremists were at the heart of
some terrorist plots, they don't represent Islam or any other religion. If
we believe that the few Muslim terrorists represent the entire religion, we
must then go to the absurdity of believing that we should boycott all
Christmas stamps because some Christian extremists destroyed the federal
building in Oklahoma City and murdered 178 and wounded more than 800. We
would have to boycott the Christmas stamp because God-fearing Christians
lynched as many as 10,000 Americans-most of them Black but many of whom were
Jews, Italians, and Irish-in the century after the Civil War. We would
condemn Christianity because of the Inquisitions of the 15th and 16th
centuries. We would blame the Protestants and the Catholics for a religious
civil war in Northern Ireland that led to the deaths of more than 3,700 in a
four decade period. We would never speak favorably of any German or millions
of other Europeans because the Nazis and their collaborators, good
Christians all, launched the holocaust that led to the murders of 12 million
and a war that claimed more than 50 million lives, most of them civilian.
On Halloween, we see pre-teen girls cutely dressed as witches, happily going
door to door for candy, and we readily help them get the sugar-kick they
expect every Oct. 31. We don't condemn these pretend-witches, unlike
Christians of the 17th century America who burned and drowned women because
they were "witches."
Every religion has its militant extremists who violate laws and commandments
against murder, but every religion has people of peace who believe in love
and tolerance. Indeed, by condemning all Muslims, we also condemn ourselves
to ignorance, hatred, bigotry, and fear.
_______
About author Walter Brasch's current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts:
The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights and
'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina. Both are
available through amazon.com and other on-line sources. You may contact Dr.
Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu [1], or through his website,
www.walterbrasch.com [1]. Readers may also wish to order Making Burros Fly:
Cleveland Amory, Animal Rights Pioneer, by Julie Hoffman Marshall.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Walter Brasch
Created Oct 30 2007 - 8:36am
There are a lot of scary things in the world.
There's the "fun-scary"-kids who dress up as clowns, monsters, or fairy
princesses once a year to get a month's supply of candy, which they'll
finish off by morning.
There's scary movies, from "Jaws" to "Friday the 13th" to-well-"Scary
Movie."
The murder mystery genre-in books, TV, and film-can scare even the least
gullible. What's even scarier is that there were about 1.4 million violent
crimes last year; about 17,000 of them were murders, about 89 percent from
firearms, according to the FBI.
Poverty, the deterioration of the environment, and Dick Cheney are all
scary.
But the scariest of all is ignorance, hatred, and bigotry, wrapped within
the cloak of fear.
This past week, along with a mini-mail list of about 60, I received an
e-mail from a friend. She's a nice lady, relatively bright, and active in
community affairs. The e-mail has been around for several years, but is
refreshed every year between Halloween and Christmas. As is custom,
thousands who receive it forward it to thousands of others who are asked to
boycott stamps that honor Muslim holidays. The first lines of the e-mail are
bold. "How ironic is this??!!" it screams at us. "They don't even believe in
Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp . . ." The
graphics-laden e-mail displays a 37-cent postage stamp. The rest of the
e-mail, all in bold type and colors, tells us that we are supposed to
remember the "MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103," the "MUSLIM bombing of
the World Trade Center in 1993," and the "MUSLIM" bombings of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia and American embassies in Africa, the U.S.S. Cole,
and 9/11.
We are told not only to "remember to adamantly and vocally boycott this
stamp," but that buying this stamp "would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors." We are
urged to forward the e-mail to "every patriotic American you know."
The stamp, according to the U.S. Postal Service, was issued to commemorate
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, considered by Muslims as the two most important
festivals in their calendar year. The calligraphy in the center of the stamp
translates literally as "blessed festival," or more loosely as, "May your
religious holiday be blessed." The stamp was first issued on Sept. 1, 2001,
and then reissued in 2002, 2006, and in September this year to reflect
postage increases.
Although the Post Office each year issues a stamp to honor Christmas, it
also issues a non-denominational holiday stamp. It also issues stamps to
honor Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
Those who write and forward the e-mails of intolerance don't understand, and
probably never will, that while some Muslim extremists were at the heart of
some terrorist plots, they don't represent Islam or any other religion. If
we believe that the few Muslim terrorists represent the entire religion, we
must then go to the absurdity of believing that we should boycott all
Christmas stamps because some Christian extremists destroyed the federal
building in Oklahoma City and murdered 178 and wounded more than 800. We
would have to boycott the Christmas stamp because God-fearing Christians
lynched as many as 10,000 Americans-most of them Black but many of whom were
Jews, Italians, and Irish-in the century after the Civil War. We would
condemn Christianity because of the Inquisitions of the 15th and 16th
centuries. We would blame the Protestants and the Catholics for a religious
civil war in Northern Ireland that led to the deaths of more than 3,700 in a
four decade period. We would never speak favorably of any German or millions
of other Europeans because the Nazis and their collaborators, good
Christians all, launched the holocaust that led to the murders of 12 million
and a war that claimed more than 50 million lives, most of them civilian.
On Halloween, we see pre-teen girls cutely dressed as witches, happily going
door to door for candy, and we readily help them get the sugar-kick they
expect every Oct. 31. We don't condemn these pretend-witches, unlike
Christians of the 17th century America who burned and drowned women because
they were "witches."
Every religion has its militant extremists who violate laws and commandments
against murder, but every religion has people of peace who believe in love
and tolerance. Indeed, by condemning all Muslims, we also condemn ourselves
to ignorance, hatred, bigotry, and fear.
_______
About author Walter Brasch's current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts:
The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights and
'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina. Both are
available through amazon.com and other on-line sources. You may contact Dr.
Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu [1], or through his website,
www.walterbrasch.com [1]. Readers may also wish to order Making Burros Fly:
Cleveland Amory, Animal Rights Pioneer, by Julie Hoffman Marshall.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson