Organ Mountain Zen



Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Our Fear

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Sometimes my faith in the humanity of people is deeply shaken.  Deservedly so. Blind faith in whatever form is dangerous.  Every once in awhile we need a wake-up call.  In this case the call isn't what most of us might think it is.  No, it is not radical or extremist Islam, it is our fear.  To protect us from that which we are afraid of we create, indiscriminately, an enemy with a very broad brush. And in this brush we try to find ways to either get rid of him or keep him away from us.

Putting what we are afraid of in a closet and locking the door is no solution.  It takes energy and lots of it to keep that door closed and the loss of that energy prevents us from doing good things for our society.  When we respond to fear in this way that which we are afraid of becomes more powerful.  We choose to give away our freedoms, we betray the values our nation was founded upon, to wit, religious freedom, freedom of movement, freedom to bear arms, freedom from intrusions upon our privacy.  All in the name of national security and self defense.

You know, Old Timothy from Oklahoma felt himself to be a Christian and a patriot as he blew up the federal building killing scores of innocents.  I did not see Donald Trump call for the barring of Christians trying to enter our country as a result.  Did you?  And the KKK is a Christian organization, burning crosses and tar and feathering human beings...was there a call to  disrobe these domestic terrorists, burn bibles, or otherwise cope with our fear and outrage?

I don't know what the answer is to terrorism, but what I believe is this:  we ought not give up our nation's principles in order to remain safe because when we do, we are our own enemy, killing ourselves in the process.  Plainly speaking it is simply wrong to hold Muslims accountable for what terrorists do. Just as it would be wrong to blame all Christians for what the KKK has done.

What Mr. Trump and his cohorts are doing is destructive to our values and will lead us into the arms of a police state.  Is this really what our flag, constitution, and bill of rights stand for? I don't think so.

Yours,
Daiho


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