[Vision2020] Arrest aftermath

[Thomas Hansen]

I don't buy it, Mr. Wilson.  To condemn an entire race based soley on the
actions of a small percentage of that race goes beyond ignorant racial
prejudice.  To hide behind the cloak of Christianity while supporting such
ignorant beliefs is inhuman.  I seriously believe that your definitions of
kindness, respect, and dignity may come indirctly from the Bible, but more
directly from Mein Kampf.

I gre up in Los Angeles in the sixties.  I can smell prejudice even when it
is presented under the guise of being "biblical".  Bottom line, Mr. Wilson.
You can put horse reigns on a jackass, but it is still a jackass.

I was taught kindness, respect, and dignity from a true Angelina (a
native-born Los Angeles woman), my mother, who preached into me that human
kindness is something nobody should be without, and an Iowa farm boy, my
father, that taught me that hard work and honesty are always rewarded.  I am
not sorry if my parents do not fit your description of "mule-like" PCness.
To me, that proverbial glass of water will always be half full.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas [mailto:dougwils@moscow.com]
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 2:56 PM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Arrest aftermath


Dear visionaries,

Carl Westberg asks if I would be willing to urge residents of our town to 
treat the strangers among us with respect, kindness and dignity. The answer 
is absolutely.  "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall 
not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as 
one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were 
strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God" (Lev. 19:33-34).

But kindness, respect and dignity are, like everything else, defined by a 
particular standard. As a Christian, I think that standard ought to be 
biblical, and not to be defined by a mule-like PCness that refuses to 
profile according to ethnicity at airports. Forgetting this, we rifle 
through the luggage of 85-year-old Swedish grandmothers while letting 
28-year-old Saudi young men go on through. My position is not a violation 
of the Golden Rule. If the roles were reversed and I was in Saudi Arabia, 
and some Anglos blew something up over there, I would expect them to 
profile *all* the Anglos leaving the country. They would do it to -- not 
being wooly-headed like we are.

Tom Hansen has applied his insights in such a way as to make detective work 
an impossibility. When a bunch of people are intent on doing bad things to 
you, and you know their general description (language, country of origin, 
race, etc.) it is not a hate crime to look closely at everyone who answers 
to that description. If a white guy knocks off a convenience store, you 
don't have the cops patrol black neighborhoods looking for him in the 
interests of fairness.

My use of "as has not yet been established" was to make the opposite point 
from how Tom Hansen took it. The gentleman arrested is innocent until 
proven guilty, and that is the way it ought to be. Mr. Hansen italicized 
"yet" when he should have italicized "established."

Auntie Establishment was talking about *somebody* when she averred that she 
would not give a plug nickel to hear an intolerant preach talk through his 
hat on the nature of Islam. She is in luck, for I am willing to offer all 
these observations for free.

Sunil said the "only conclusion that could be drawn would be that the 
particular person charged was not following the rules he is to follow." 
This is one possible conclusion, but not the only one. Another possibility 
is that the rules are not what they are being represented as being. In 
other words, it is at least a logical possibility that jihad means real 
physical war, and that lying to the infidel is no more reprehensible in 
some Muslim eyes than lying to Nazis would be to me.

Here is the dilemma you all have. My "intolerant" insistence that jihad is 
about far more than subduing the lusts within (a medieval Islamic 
innovation) is a position that is *shared* by many Muslims around the 
globe. Such Muslims can find themselves in positions of influence -- e.g. 
cockpits of highjacked airliners. You cannot condemn my position that jihad 
involves physical warfare against the infidel without simultaneously 
condemning the many Muslims who agree with me. Are you willing to say that 
United Methodists in Moscow, Idaho have a better grasp of what makes a true 
Muslim than does, say, Osama?

Doesn't it bug you to have spokesmen for the Bush administration making 
pronouncements about what does and does not constitute true Islam? It bugs 
me. Why not let Muslims define it?

Cordially,

Douglas



_____________________________________________________
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ